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SPECIAL MATTAPOISETT EDITION 




THE GRAFTON HISTORICAL SERIES 
Edited by HENRY R. STILES, A.M., M.D 



The Grafton Historical Series 

Edited by Henry R. Stiles, A.M., M.D. 

12mo. Cloth, gilt top 



In Olde Connecticut 

By Charles Burr Todd 

Frontispiece, $1.25 net (postage 10c.) 



Historic Hadley 

By Alice Morehouse Walker 

Illustrated, $1.00 net (postage 10c.) 



King Philip's War 

By George W. Ellis and 

John E. Morris 

Illustrated, $2.00 net (postage 15c.) 



In Olde Massachusetts 

By Charles Burr Todd 

Illustrated, $1.50 net (postage 10c.) 

Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, 
Massachusetts 

Prepared under the direction of a Committee 

of the Town of Mattapoisett 

Illustrated, $2.00 net (postage 15c.) 



In Press 
The Diary of Reverend Enos Hitchcock 
A Chaplain in The Revolution 



The Cherokee Indians 
By Thomas Valentine Parker, Ph.D. 



Historic Graveyards of Maryland and 

their Inscriptions 

By Helen W. Ridgely 

In Olde New York 
By Charles Burr Todd 



THE GRAFTON PRESS 

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MATTAPOISETT 

AND OLD ROCHESTER 

MASSACHUSETTS 



BEING A HISTORY OF THESE TOWNS AND 

ALSO IN PART OF MARION AND A 

PORTION OF WAREHAM 



PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF A 
COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN OF MATTAPOISETT 




THE GRAFTON PRESS 

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 



FT 4 



1 LIBRARY of CONGRESS] 

l „ I 

Two Conle? Received ' 

AUG 16 '90^ 




i&Eh 1 



Copyright, 1907, 
By THE GRAFTON PRESS. 



MATTAPOISETT was set off from Rochester and 
incorporated as a separate town, May 20, 1857. 
The town voted to observe, in 1907, the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of its corporate existence, and appointed a committee 
of arrangements. Recognizing that the history of old 
Rochester- town had never been adequately presented, 
nor the story of " Mattapoisett Quarter" told, the first act 
toward this anniversary celebration was the appointment 
of the undersigned as a committee to gather historical 
data and secure its publication. An arrangement was at 
once made with Miss Mary Hall Leonard, of Rochester, 
to prepare the chapters on the early history of the old 
town; lists which appeared to be of genealogical or his- 
torical interest have been copied; and chapters especially 
relating to Mattapoisett have been added. It is hoped 
that the story told in this volume may give some picture 
of early life in one of the old towns of Plymouth Colony, 
and that it may set forth things, both new and old, which 
will be of interest to those who participate in this anniver- 
sary, and of increasing and permanent value as a contri- 
bution to local history. 

Charles S. Hamlin. 

Lemuel LeBaron Holmes. 

Harriet Mendell Hammond. 

William E. Sparrow, Jr. 

Lemuel LeBaron Dexter. 
Mattapoisett, Committee. 

July 15, 1907. 



" The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric 
facts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might 
have been is half owing to the number who have lived faithfully 
a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tomb3." — George Eliot. 



LEMUEL LeBARON HOLMES 

A Justice of the Superior Court in Massachusetts; a native of 

Mattapoisett and a lover of her history and tradition, 

who suggested the preparation of this book 

and whose death, August 4, 1907, 

prevented his seeing its 

completion, this book 

is dedicated 



CONTENTS 



i 

ii 
in 

IV 

v 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 

xrv 



Earliest Times Mary Hall Leonard 

General Features " " " 

The Beginnings of Rochester Town, 

1679-1700 

The Settlers and Settlements . 
The Early Church and Precincts . 
The Eighteenth Century . . . 
The Revolutionary War . 
After the Revolution .... 



The Division of the Town . 
The Church in the Second 

Precinct 

Maritime and Other Industries 
Mattapoisett in the Civil War 
Mattapoisett, the Town 
Mattapoisett of the Present 



Lemuel LeBaron Dexter 

Lemuel LeBaron Dexter 

Lemuel LeBaron Holmes 

James S. Burbank 

. Lester W. Jenney 

. Mary Frances Briggs 



1 
21 



48 

72 

97 

126 

143 

166 

187 
279 
302 
313 
336 



Extracts from the Records 

I Old Rochester Soldiers and Sailors 349 

II Assessors' Rate-Bill, Rochester, 1776 360 

III A Schedule of Maximum Prices, Established for 1777 . 363 

IV Assessors' List, Mattapoisett Precinct, 1740 366 

V List of Members, Second Church in Rochester, 

— Mattapoisett Precinct,— 1772 368 

VI Infant Baptisms and Marriages from the Records of the 

Second Church in Rochester, 1740-1857 370 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Map of Old Rochester Territory Frontispiece 

FACE 

Neds Point at Low Tide. Photo by Gertrude W. Dexter ... 14 

Mattapoisett River near the Sea. Photo by Harriet M. Hammond 18 

Sippican Harbor. Photo by Tirrell 22 

The Great Rock, Mattapoisett. Photo by Tirrell 32 

Minister's Rock, Little Neck, Marion. Photo by Frank B. Howland 44 

The Lieut. John Hammond House. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter 50 

The Whitridge, or Winslow, House. Photo by Frank B. Howland 54 
Meeting-house of the First Parish, Rochester Center. Photo by 

Tirrell 90 

Mattapoisett Herring Weir. Photo Hutchinson & Co. . . . 104 
The "Dexter Elm" and Mill, Mattapoisett. Photo by Robert 

Humphrey 114 

Rochester Common. From an old photograph 130 

Cannon Street, Mattapoisett, about 1880. Photo by William B. 

Nelson 146 

Water Street, Mattapoisett. Photo by Harriet M. Hammond . 162 

Map of Mattapoisett Village, 1856. From Waiting's Map . . 166 

Town House, Rochester Center. From an old photograph . . 170 

The Old Landing, Marion. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter . . 182 

Second Precinct Relics. Photo by Reed 188 

"The Old Mansion." Photo by Robert Humphrey .... 208 

Mattapoisett Academy. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter . . . 221 

Thomas Robbins. From a Steel Engraving 231 

Congregational Meeting-house, Mattapoisett. Photo by Seaton Lee 

Sparrow 241 

First Christian Meeting-house, Mattapoisett. Photo by Lemuel 

LeB. Dexter 262 

Interior of the First Christian Meeting-house, Mattapoisett, 1905. 

Photo by Andrew T. Sampson 267 

Universalist Meeting-house and Rogers School Building. Photo 

by Robert Humphrey 272 



xii Illustrations 

FACE 

Ship Niger. Photo by Tirrell 282 

The Old Barstow House. Photo by Sarah H. Sparrow . . . 286 

Bark Sunbeam. Photo by Tirrell 294 

Barstow Street, Mattapoisett. Photo by Elizabeth H. Holmes . 306 

West District Schoolhouse. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter . . 318 

The Old Engine House. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter . . . 326 

Mattapoisett Village from Neds Point. Photo by Tirrell ... 338 

Lovers' Bridge, Mattapoisett River. Photo by Tirrell .... 342 

Mattapoisett Harbor. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter .... 344 v 



MATTAPOISETT 
AND OLD ROCHESTER 



FOREWORD 

A HISTORY of a locality, even if it be a brief history, 
is the work of many minds. The largest contribu- 
tions are made by the contemporary writings of the past. 
The Plymouth Colony records, the Old Rochester Pro- 
prietors' book, the many town books of Old Rochester 
covering a period of 160 years, the ancient church and 
parish books of the First and Second Precincts, two or 
three descriptive articles published many years ago in the 
Massachusetts Historical Collections, the "Memoirs" of 
Hon. Abraham Holmes, the private writings of several 
early ministers of Rochester, including the diary of Dr. 
Thomas Robbins — these are the prime sources from 
which the historical material here presented has been 
drawn. To these may be added a number of anniversary 
sermons preached by later ministers in the different pre- 
cincts, the historic gatherings of William Root Bliss and 
Rev. Noble Everett for the town of Wareham, and the 
addresses given at the Rochester Bicentennial celebra- 
tion in 1879. 

But there are many persons besides the writers of these 
old records who have had a part in this history, even if 
their contributions were not always committed to writing. 
Such men as John Hammond and John Bourne Sturte- 
vant of several generations ago, have passed on to others 
the facts that they had learned. Aged men of to-day, 



2 Foreword 

like Mr. Silas B. Allen and Mr. Ichabod Blankinship, of 
Marion, out of the memories of a long lifetime, have 
furnished historic facts for these chapters. Especially 
valuable has been the aid given by the late Mr. John S. 
Ryder, for many years parish and church clerk at Roches- 
ter Center, who through his writings and in many con- 
versations has placed at the author's service his large 
knowledge of Rochester history. 

There are also many younger investigators and cor- 
respondents in all the four quarters of Old Rochester 
and in neighboring towns who can find in these pages 
interesting historic items which they themselves have 
furnished toward the preparation of this book. 

Especially should recognition here be given to the 
direct aid given by the Mattapoisett Historical Com- 
mittee, under whose commission this work has been 
performed, an aid without which these chapters on Old 
Rochester history could scarcely have been completed 
within the limited time that was available for this work. 

The thanks of the writer are also due to Mr. A. H. 
Weld, town clerk of Rochester, for personal courtesies in 
the laborious task of collecting historic information from 
the old town books and papers. 

That a writing of this kind is necessarily imperfect 
every local historian is aware, and no one knows so well 
as the writer the imperfections that belong to these pages. 
But it is hoped, nevertheless, that they may give a gen- 
erally correct as well as vivid picture of the old town of 
the past, and form, as it were, a worthy background for 
the local histories of this region that will yet be written. 

To the sons and daughters and grandchildren of Old 
Rochester, scattered far and wide through this Union of 



Foreword 3 

States, belongs the task to fill out the historic picture that 
has been sketched and to continue it in a panoramic 
scroll through the years that follow the period that has 
been in outline covered. Since the division of Old 
Rochester into three towns at the middle of the nine- 
teenth century, each of the parts of the old town has 
had fifty years of local history added to its past. 

And history is still making, and the history of the new 
must be recorded by those who are the actors in these 
historic events as they occur. 

Moreover, the history of a town in its last analysis must 
exhibit a history of the families who have composed the 
town, a field which it is obviously impossible to enter 
upon extensively in a book of this kind. But every family 
needs its own historian, and every family has its own 
historical contribution to make toward the final history 
of the community in which it holds a part. 

If the preparation of these chapters should lead the 
descendants of Old Rochester to search their attic chests 
and desks of family papers and gather and put in order 
these more intimate details of local and family history, 
the best result of this brief history of Old Rochester may 
be said to have been accomplished. 

Mary Hall Leonard. 



MATTAPOISETT AND OLD 
ROCHESTER 

CHAPTER I 

EARLIEST TIMES 

ON the west shore of Buzzards Bay are many long 
peninsulas or " Necks," enclosing harbors having a 
general southeasterly trend. Near each harbor once 
stood an Indian village, — as Agawam, Sippican, Matta- 
poisett, and Acushena, — having the same name as the 
harbor and also of a tract of country reaching a few miles 
inland. 

These shores were known to white men at an early 
date. When Bartholomew Gosnold, the English explorer, 
in 1602, sailed across from Cutty hunk and entered Acush- 
net River, the description given by Archer shows that it 
was the shores to the west of Sconticut Neck that he 
chiefly explored. Yet the other historian of the party, 
Brereton, alludes to " many harbors thereabouts," and one 
can easily imagine that these adventurous navigators may 
have caught glimpses of the easterly Necks as well. But, 
however this may be, the descriptions given by Brereton 
and by Archer of the rocks and shells along the shores, 
the open woods (kept free from underbrush' by the 
Indians), the plants and animals, apply to the old 
Rochester lands as well as to those of Dartmouth. 



6 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

In 1627 an agent from Fort Amsterdam (now New 
York) named Isaac De Rasieres, "the chief merchant 
and second to the governor," was sent for trading pur- 
poses to Plymouth. He sailed up through Buzzards Bay, 
"accompanied by a noise of trumpets," and was met by 
the Plymouth people at the head of the bay, then called 
Manomet. 

He must have had glimpses of these shores and head- 
lands, but has left no record of what he saw. 

The first definite historical reference to Mattapoisett l 
occurs in 1640-1. At that time the Plymouth Colony 
was entering on a new stage of civic history. Governor 
Bradford surrendered the patent of the colony lands into 
the hands of the freemen. Charters were given to the 
towns outside of Plymouth, which now began to send 
delegates to the General Court, thus forming a represen- 
tative government, and certain outside tracts were now 
set aside for the special use of the "Old Comers." 2 It 
was in accordance with this new policy that the General 
Court passed the following act : 

"May 2, 1640-1. The Court hath graunted a com- 
petent porcion of vpland & hey ground to yt sufficient 
for a plantacion at Mattapoyst to Mr. Charles Chauncey 
Mr. John Atwood & Thomas Cushman & to be bounded 
by such as the Court shall especially assigne therevnto 
wch were nominated to be Mr. Thomas Prence and 

1 In the early records, however, the name Mattapoisett is often given 
to Gardner's Neck, Swanzey, where in 1623 Edward Winslow visited 
while on his second embassy to Massasoit. It was there also that the 
first English blood was shed in King Philip's War. 

2 The Pilgrims who came in the Mayflower, the Fortune, and the 
Anne were called "Old Comers" or "Forefathers." 



Earliest Times 7 

Captaine Miles Standish, puided alwayes that such of the 
purchasers as shall take vp their lands there shall not 
have it elswhere also." 

These bounds were not laid out, however, and none of 
the "Old Comers" took up their lands in the "planta- 
cion of Mattapoyst." A year and a half earlier (January 
22, 1638-9) the plantation of Seppekann, east of Matta- 
poisett, had been offered to eight men of Scituate for the 
benefit of Rev. John Lothrop's congregation who had fled 
from London to escape the persecutions of Archbishop 
Laud, and tarried for awhile at Scituate. This grant was 
not accepted, as Mr. Lothrop's congregation preferred to 
settle in Barnstable; but forty years later two of the 
sons of Parson Lothrop and other descendants of these 
Scituate men became original proprietors of the lands of 
Sippican and Mattapoisett in the town of Rochester. 
In 1649 a new grant of Sepecan was offered to the towns- 
men of Plymouth as a place for pasturage and wintering 
of cattle, and in 1651 the Sepecan grant was defined as 
"eight miles by the sea and four miles into the land." 
Lands thus granted to the freemen of the colony were to 
be purchased from their Indian owners. The land grant 
gave the right to make such a purchase, but was not to 
take effect until the Indians had been paid for their owner- 
ship rights. Liberty was now given to the town of Ply- 
mouth, " to purchase the lands of Sepecan," and the town 
itself took action relating to such a purchase "when its 
true pprietors shall be made manifest." The town also 
gave liberty to seven men of Plymouth "to Imploy men 
in hearding and wintering the cattell at Sepecan." 

In 1666, King Philip gave power to Watachpoo and 
Sampson, two subordinate chiefs, to sell the lands of 



8 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Sepecan; and in 1688 he made a curious drawing (which 
has been preserved in the Plymouth Colony Records) to 
show the lands that might be sold. 

In 1669, Joseph Bartlett, who had been improving the 
lands of Sepecan, agreed to pay to the town of Plymouth 
forty shillings for the use of these lands and to surrender 
the lease of the lands that he had held. In 1670 agents 
of Plymouth town agreed with the Indian Totosin (also 
called Tousand) about " a psell of Land * desired by him 
att Sepecan." 

In 1670 it was voted by the General Court of Plymouth 
that the profits of the upland and meadow lands at " Aga- 
wam, Sepecan, and places adjacent," together with the 
rental of the Cape Cod fisheries, should be used for the 
support of a school at Plymouth, and in 1672-3, agents 
from Plymouth colony were appointed to purchase " what- 
ever lands are yet unpurchased of Plymouth graunt att 
Sepecan and places adjacent." 

If any such purchase was made by the colony at this 
date it was not recorded. In 1674, however, the town of 
Plymouth voted that "Whereas the proffits of lands att 
Sepecan Agawam & places adjacent were given for the 
free scool att Plymouth ... the Towne declares that 
theire graunt was only of the lands there and thereabouts 
which were purchased by the Towne of the Indians before 
the sd May the 20th 1672." 

In 1679, when the Rochester proprietors began to nego- 
tiate with the General Court of Plymouth for a township 
grant, the town of Plymouth still claimed a right to these 
lands and appointed "Agents to treat with the purchasers 
of Sepecan concerning our title to the said lands & places 
1 This land afterwards became known as Towser's Neck. 



Earliest Times 9 

adjacent & to leave to Composition with them Respect- 
ing the Controversy betwixt the said Towne & them 
about it," and also "impowered agents to prosecute a 
suite Respecting the premises." 

It appears from these records that while various attempts 
were made by the colony and the town of Plymouth to 
purchase "the lands of Sepecan and places adjacent," 
and while certain tracts were really purchased, no general 
purchase of these lands from the Indians was ever made. 
In 1673, when the last attempt at purchase was proposed, 
the Indian troubles were already gathering, and at the 
close of King Philip's war the remaining Indian lands 
passed into the hands of the English by right of con- 
quest. 

The records of "Sepecan and places adjacent" cover 
to some extent "the plantacion of Matapoyst," which 
also was never as a whole purchased from the Indians. 
A year or two before the war, an interesting record occurs 
which shows that Mattapoisett was still under Indian 
ownership, and also gives the bounds of the "tract called 
Mattapoisett." (See Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. 
XII, p. 225.) 

"Oct. 3, 1673, Papamo, Machacam and Achawana- 
mett being the Right owners of the land heer mensioned 
doe desire to have them Recorded in the Court of Plymouth 
Collonie that soe wee may preserue our lands for our 
children: the bounds of our land are as followeth, from the 
Easteren bounds of Dartmouth att the watersyde to a 
place called Wassapacoasett : and soe into the woods to 
the southeast end of a pond called Masquanspust x which 

1 In Winthrop's History of New England (reprint of 1826) there is 
a list of Indian names which gives Musquunipash as a part of Rochester. 



10 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

is about six or seauen myle; and along the south syde of 
the pond to a great spruce tree marked, on four sydes, 
which is the head bound, on the east syde of our land, and 
from thence to a swamp which lyeth south from the Marked 
tree. The swamp is called quanumpacke: and from 
thence to the two Rockes lying by the Pathsyde; which 
goeth from Dartmouth to Sandwich; Eastern syde of 
Dartmouth bounds is the Westersde of our bounds; and 
Sandwich path is our head bounds, on the west syde of our 
land from Dartmouth bounds, to them two Rockes be- 
fore Named, our Tract of land is called by the name of 
Mattapoisett." 

Soon after this (November 8, 1673), Tuspaquin, Philip's 
brother-in-law, the Black Sachem of Assawampsett, sold 
for ten pounds to John Tomson, John Lothrop, and Bar- 
nabas Lothrop of Barnstable a tract of land extending 
from Queetiquash River, Queetiquash Pond, Sniptuit 
River and a Neck of Land, to Dartmouth; and July 2, 
1674, the three Indian owners of Mattapoisett again 
recorded the bounds of their land with the statement that 
a part of this land had been sold by Tuspaquin to these 
men of Barnstable, which sale these Indian owners had 
"condescended unto." 

It is hard to solve the mysteries of the old Indian names, 
but a study of these records makes it evident that the 
tract called Mattapoisett at one time covered the whole 
of the western part of Rochester, extending on the north 
to the Assawampsett region of Middleboro. The tract 
in North Rochester sold by Tuspaquin to John Tomson 
and the Lothrops is known as "The Tomson Purchase." 
A few months earlier a large tract of South Middleboro 
had been bought from Tuspaquin, which is known as 



Earliest Times 11 

"The South Purchase of Middleboro." The agents in 
this South Purchase were Benjamin Church and John 
Tomson, who were afterwards allowed to set off for their 
own use a certain part of the South Purchase extending 
to Sniptuit Pond. This became known as the Sniptuit 
Purchase, and a part of this was afterwards included 
within the bounds of Rochester. 

In 1667 the Plymouth Court granted to Hugh Cole of 
Swanzey, " respecting his father's grant (being an ancient 
freeman), and his own grant, six score acres of land 
between the Mattapoisett river and the eastern bound of 
Acushena." This land Cole purchased of King Philip 
in 1671, and afterwards sold it to Samuel Hammond, one 
of the earliest settlers of Mattapoisett. 

In 1676 the colony passed an act granting to the sol- 
diers of the Narragansett expedition of King Philip's war, 
lands to the value of one thousand pounds in Showam- 
mett, Assonett Neck, Assawamsit, Agawam and Sepecan, 
but it is not certain that any of the Rochester lands came 
into individual ownership under this act. 

In 1679 the Rochester Proprietary was formed, which 
(July 22, 1679) purchased from the colony at a considera- 
tion of two hundred pounds (to be applied to the debt 
incurred by the war) a township grant of all the lands 
on Buzzards Bay, between Dartmouth, Middleboro, and 
Plymouth Purchase or Agawam. The whole territory is 
often referred to as the "lands of Sippican," but it in- 
cluded Mattapoisett and a large territory north of Sip- 
pican known as Menchoisett. The part of Sippican 
which in 1739 was set off into Wareham was also called 
Weweantit, and the northern part of Mattapoisett was 
later known as Sniptuit. 



12 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Minister Le Baron in 1738 names the parts of Rochester 
as "Easterly part Sepican, Southerly Mattapoysett, West- 
erly Snippatuit — the middle part of Town Munchoiset " ; 
and John Hammond (b. 1756) preserved in memory a 
distich learned in boyhood which names the " Quarters 
of Rochester" as 

" Snipatuit, Monochesset, 
Sippican and Mattapesset." 

These old Indian names are significant. Mattapoisett has 
been interpreted as " a place of resting * ; Sniptuit means 
"rocky water"; Sippican "the long river"; Weweantit or 
" young bucks " is supposed to have been a place of resort 
for these animals; while Menchoisett or "much food" 
suggests that its arable lands had been used by the Indians 
for planting. 

After the Rochester purchase was made, there were 
still some Indian claims to be satisfied. In 1667 an In- 
dian named Charles (alias Paumpmuitt) had bought of 
two sachems for the sum of eight pounds the peninsula 
known as Charles's Neck. This land he now sold to the 
Proprietary for six pounds. November 19, 1679, Joseph 
Lothrop, agent of the company, paid to Peter Suscacow 
(also called "Maniment Peeter") five shillings to satisfy 
his claim. But the most important claimant appeared in 
the person of an Indian named William Connett, who in 
1683 laid claim to all the lands between Sippican River 
and Plymouth's westerly bound at Agawam. He also 
committed trespass on these lands, and "did disclaime 
and defie the title of every these men called the purchasers 
of Sepecan." His claim was carried to the courts, but it 
was not pleaded. The parties came to an agreement by 



Earliest Times 13 

which Connett was given a proprietor's share in the lands 
of Rochester. Connett's name appears later as a sub- 
scriber towards the funds for the first gristmill of the 
town. But it soon disappears from the town history. 
A point of land in Mattapoisett eastward from Angelica 
has recently been named Connett Point in memory of 
this Indian who thus stoutly resisted the claims of the 
white invaders. 

Within the Rochester territory are various traces of the 
old Indian life. Northwest of Mattapoisett village is a 
long ridge called " Indian Burying Hill," filled with bony 
deposits of Indian sepulture. Under the sands along the 
shores are buried heaps of clam and oyster shells (known 
to scientists as "Kitchen-middens") which mark the 
spots of ancient Indian feasts. 

A full description of one of these feasts has come down 
to us in Church's " Entertaining History of King Philip's 
War." It was held in 1676, and commemorates an im- 
portant meeting between Captain Church and Awashonks, 
the squaw Sachem of the Sogkonate Indians of Little 
Compton. An earlier meeting between Church and 
Awashonks had been held at Treaty Rock in Little Comp- 
ton, at which Awashonks " pledged her fidelitie " to the 
English and offered the services of her men on the English 
side. But when Captain Church went on to Plymouth, 
offering his services and that of these Indian allies, the 
authorities distrusted the sincerity of Awashonks and to 
test it ordered her to proceed with her warriors at once 
to Sandwich and "to be there upon Peril in six days." 
She tried to get excused, but Captain Church urged her 
to comply and promised to meet her on his return from 
Plymouth. 



14 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

The place of the expected meeting was in Agawam, but 
on Church's arrival there the Indians were not in sight. 
With some anxiety Church left two of his companions for 
a reserve and continued his journey westward. After 
crossing Sippican River, and another river, he came to a 
shore where there was a wide view of the bay and found the 
Indians running races and holding a feast on the " Sands 
and Flats." 1 

At the supper, to which Captain Church was invited, 
"a curious young Bass was brought in on one dish, eels 
and flatfish on a second, shellfish on a third, but neither 
Bread nor Salt was to be seen at table." 

Supper being over, a dramatic scene ensued which is 
thus described by Captain Church: 

" A great pile of Pine Knots and Tops was fired and the 
Indians gathered in a ring about it. Awashonks and the 
oldest of her people kneeling down made the first ring, 
and all the stout lusty men standing up made the next, 
and all the Rabble, a Confused Crew, surrounded on the 
outside. Then the Chief Captain stepped in between the 
people and the fire, and with a spear in one hand and a 
hatchet in the other danced round the fire and began to 
fight with it, making mention of all the several nations 
and companies of Indians that were enemies to the Eng- 
lish; and at every tribe named he would draw out and 
fight a new fire brand, and at finishing his fight with a 
fire brand he would bow to him and thank him. When 

1 Various localities have been suggested by different historians. Dr. 
Henry M. Dexter, however, in his annotated edition of Church's History 
(1875) suggests that the second river crossed was Mill Creek flowing 
into Aucoot Cove, and that the "wide view of the bay" makes it prob- 
able that the place of the feast was between Aucoot Cove and Angelica, 
or between Angelica and Ned's Point. 




v 



Earliest Times 15 

he had named them all and fought them, he struck down 
his spear and hatchet and came out. Then another stept 
in and acted the same dance with more fury if possible 
than the first. When about half a dozen of the chiefs 
had thus done, the Captain of the Guard told Mr. Church 
that, they were making Souldiers for him, and what they 
had been doing was all one swearing of them, and having 
in that manner engaged all the stout lusty men, Awa- 
shonks and her chiefs declared that they were now all 
engaged to fight for the English." 

At the close of the performance Awashonks presented 
to Captain Church "a very fine Firelock," and he in re- 
turn gave to her assurances of the confidence and pro- 
tection of the English. 

On the following day Captain Church went back to 
Plymouth, offering his services and those of Awashonks' 
men, which were accepted, with results which had great 
influence in determining the final success of the English. 

In the histories of King Philip's War most of the allu- 
sions to Mattapoisett refer to Gardener's Neck, Swanzey, 
where was an English garrison of seventy men. But one 
incident, which occurred July 24, 1676, is connected with 
the present Mattapoisett. 

Church and his Indian allies had marched from Taun- 
ton to Assawampset, then to Dartmouth, going as far 
west as Smith's Mills, and after various encounters with 
hostile Indians had turned back toward Plymouth by 
another route. Coming to a point where the "Country 
Road " divided to go around the two sides of a swamp, the 
party separated, the English taking one path and the 
Indian allies the other. John Cooke's place in Fair- 
haven had been agreed on as a place of rendezvous. 



16 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Church's party, however, after an encounter with an 
Indian force which they captured, learned that other 
Indians were at Sconticut Neck, and Philip himself only 
two miles away. Fearing to meet these hostile Indians 
while encumbered with captives, they "made all haste 
until they got over Mattapoisett River," where they halted, 
sending messengers back to meet the Indian allies who 
arrived the next day, and the two parties compared suc- 
cesses. It was found that the English had taken sixty- 
six prisoners, and the allies had taken sixty-three and 
killed three. The number being equal, it was looked 
upon by Church as a favor of Providence that prevented 
each party from triumphing over the other. The Indians 
had taken the larger number of arms, but it was held to 
be unfortunate that the parties had separated, as other- 
wise they might have captured Philip's force. 

A few weeks later another force of Indians was captured 
by Church "at or near Sippican." 

Of the Indians captured during the war, some were 
sold to the West Indies and Bermuda as slaves, one of 
these being the twelve-year-old son of King Philip. Others, 
including women and children, were made slaves or in- 
dentured servants within the colony. In 1676 it was 
ordered that all private persons holding adult male Indian 
captives should dispose of them out of the colony, on pain 
of forfeiting them to the use of the colony. 

It was further ordered that all Indians who had come 
into Plymouth " accepting the mercy of the Colony should 
take up their abode from the westermost side of Sepecan 
River and sow easterwards to Dartmouth bounds, and not 
to go off the aforesaid limits but by order of some magee- 
strate." Three Indians, Numpus, Isaake and Ben 



Earliest Times 17 

Sachem (alias Petenunuitt), 1 were to have the inspection 
and control of these Indians, and " Matters most momen- 
tous " were to be referred to Mr. Thomas Hinckley for 
decision. 

In the southern part of Rochester, extending up from 
Mattapoisett and nearly surrounded by the great Haskell 
swamp, is the strip of upland known as Towser's Neck. 
The name is a corruption of Tousand, one of the names 
of Totosin, who has already been referred to as obtaining 
the use of this land from the Plymouth authorities. He 
was a fierce and famous fighter, a terror to the Plymouth 
colonists during King Philip's War, and in the intervals 
when he was not fighting he made this Neck his haunt 
and hiding-place. Many stories of his treachery and his 
bravery, and finally (after the death of Philip) of his 
capture and death, are told in the histories of the time. 

From the time of the pasturage grant of 1651, there are 
traces of white occupation in the Old Rochester lands, but 
most of the early occupants were probably herders with 
only temporary habitations. 

In the southern part of Rochester, reaching down into 
Marion and Mattapoisett, is an extensive woodland, now 
wholly uninhabited; but some ancient roads can be traced 
through this woodland, and one may find an occasional 
choked-up well or cellar, some fallen bricks or a wild 
apple tree, marking a spot where once stood a human 
habitation. But the name and the history of most of 

1 Petenunuitt was the second husband of Queen Weetamoe, who had 
been the wife of King Philip's brother. Numpus was afterwards the 
captain of the remainder of Awashonks' tribe of Indians, which for 
many years had a settlement, including a church and congregation, 
at Little Compton. 



18 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

those who once lived in this forest have long been forgotten. 
It has been said that certain families from Dartmouth 
who were friendly to the Indians settled here before the 
coming of the Rochester proprietors. But authentic 
evidence as to exact facts seems lacking. 

It seems probable that a few white people were living 
on the lands of Sippican when the Rochester purchase 
was made. Yet for the most part this was virgin territory 
when in 1679 the men of Rochester chose it for their 
future home. 

Some Indians were left in the Rochester territory at the 
time of white settlement. In 1682 the colony passed a 
law that the Indian men left in the towns should be 
numbered in groups of tens, one of whom should be ap- 
pointed overseer of the other nine; and that each town 
should have a general white overseer of the Indians. 
Settlement was then begun in Rochester, but the town 
was not incorporated, and no record occurs of any Roches- 
ter action under this law; though the provision for the 
three Indian overseers of 1676 was in general agreement 
with this policy. A regulation was afterwards passed by 
the town that no Indian who had not lived in town for 
three years should be allowed "to hunt or catch deer" 
within the town limits. 

In 1690 King William's War was giving trouble to the 
colonists, and Captain Church was sent with a force of 
Indian men to the Coast of Maine, where some slight 
engagements took place. Each town of Plymouth Colony 
was required to furnish its quota of men (either white men 
or Indians), and of arms for this war. With the excep- 
tion of Falmouth, incorporated the same year, Rochester 
was the youngest town of the colony, and its quota was 



Earliest Times 19 

" 1 man and 1 arms," the required arms being " a well 
fixt gun, sword or hatchet, a horn car-touch-box, suitable 
ammunition, and a snapsack." 

In 1746 the General Court of Massachusetts appointed 
a committee * to provide a place for the reception of the 
Pigwacket Indians now at Fort William" (in Boston 
Harbor). This committee reported that a place had 
been provided at Assonomock l Neck, in Rochester, under 
the care of Captain Noah Sprague and Benjamin Ham- 
mond, Jr. It was further provided that twenty -five 
pounds in money should be given to said Sprague and 
Hammond for a boat, tools, provisions, and other 
necessaries for the support of these Indians. The later 
history of the Pigwacket Indians is lost; but a tract of 
land in Rochester mostly unoccupied and given up 
to woods and huckleberry pastures — a tract lying 
northwest of the Witch Rock Corner, and five or six 
miles distant from Mattapoisett Neck — is known to 
some of the older citizens by the mysterious name of 
Pigwacket. 

Several Indians were still left in the Old Rochester 
territory at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 
the great woodland that surrounds the Towser's Neck 
region, an Indian called " Old Tony " lived for many 
years a hermit life. Also in these woods is shown the 
site of "Peter's House," once occupied by Indian Peter 
and his wife Meribah. Mention is made still later of 
"Black Frank," a man of Indian blood, who was the 
town butcher. With him lived for a time "Boston," a 
woman from the Indian village of "Betty's Neck" in 

1 On some old maps Mattapoisett Neck is called Attansawomuck 
Neck. 



22 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

corporation of the Old Colony, June 4, 168G, and con- 
tains the Scipican and Mattapoisett of the aborigines. 
Irregular in outline, it may be in area of near eight miles 
square, or in excess of it. 

"Scipican or Rochester harbor, setting up from the 
south more than two miles in the center of its shore line, 
is formed by Great Neck on the east, and Charles's Neck 
on the west, expanding to more than a mile in width. 
There may be three wharves here, which afford nine feet 
of water in common tides, but at the extremity of the 
necks there is sufficient for vessels of burthen. The bay 
at large affords a depth of water of several fathoms. 
There is also, we are told, a wharf-landing at Great Neck. 
The situation of this harbor is the best in the place as to 
shelter. 

"Mattapoisett harbor is a more exposed and far less 
capacious haven on the southwest extreme of the shore. 
Being further down the bay a greater depth of water is 
attained. It is an outlet of a small stream of the same 
name, which traverses the whole western line of the town, 
it may be nine miles, in a south direction to mingle with 
tide waters at this place; alewives in their season seek it 
for the sake of its fountain, Senepetuit Pond. There 
may be, perhaps, twelve or more feet of water in this 
harbor. The shores in this vicinity are rocky, and the 
tides in the bay rise about six feet. 

"There are two islands large enough to have names, 
Bird and Ram Islands, both very small, the former alone 
of size sufficient to admit of cultivation. It is situated 
at the mouth of Scipican Harbor, and the other within it. 
Some small islands lie next the Mattapoisett shore and 
inlet. 




- w 



% 5 



f. 



General Features 23 

"Senepetuit, on the northwest corner of the town, is 
four miles in circumference. A brook, running from it, 
N.W. near a mile, connects it with the East Quittaques 
Pond, a very large pond, partly in this town, but chiefly 
in Middleborough. Iron ore, it is said, exists in this 
vicinity. This pond is reported to receive alewives from 
an inlet and outlet respectively from the Buzzards Bay 
side, and also from the very circuitous tributaries to the 
Taunton River. Let the reader trace this on the map, 
and be amused by the research. 

" Merry's * Pond, so called, without any outlet, a round 
pond, a mile in diameter, of shallow waters, in an open 
space, near to the main road, has an entire margin of 
remarkably white sand, which contrasted with the ad- 
jacent verdure, the rural hamlets, and a smooth hill be- 
yond it in the distance, will detain the traveler a few 
moments. It is, we think, one of those resting places 
which, though it may be often seen, pleases still, and is 
recollected to the journey's end with the same emotions. 
Snow's Pond and Little Long Pond are in the N.W. 
section of the town, and all contain fish. 

"Scipican brook, arising from small sources, called 
there 'Black water' on the confines of Middleborough, is 
formed by two or more branches, which, running southerly, 
seem to unite in the eastern section of the town, when, 
turning easterly, it meets the tide waters in the vicinity 
of Great Neck, not so far from Wareham West boundary. 
From this little stream, a few miles in length, the planta- 
tion or proprietary, in early annals, took its name. 

" Mattapoisett brook, perhaps of greater volume of 

1 A Mr. Merry, it is said, formerly lived in the vicinity of this 
pond. 



24 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

water, meandering along low, swampy grounds, parallel 
to Fair Haven line, has already been noticed. There 
may be some other small brooks and ponds, but not of 
magnitude sufficient to be described. 

" Great Hill, or Great Neck Hill, apparently a smooth 
pasture hill, is situated not far from the shore on the 
Great Neck. It must, we think, present an uninterrupted 
view of the back shore of Sandwich and Falmouth, to- 
gether with the pleasant bay of Manomet five or six miles 
over. We have noticed this hill as a conspicuous and 
distinct object when at Wood's Hole. Queetiquash Hills 
are in the north part of the town near the pond and brook 
of the same name. 

"Tataug, scauppaug, eels, are the most common fish 
near the shores, with alewives in their season. At several 
places of resort oysters have become less common; the 
quahaug and lesser clam are found in the place. Without 
the harbour the bay affords a greater variety ; but not the 
codfish nearer than Gay Head. 

"Birds of passage doubtless frequented these pleasant 
shores, in former days; and hence probably the name of 
the little island we have already noticed, while the deer 
walked unmolested in the boundless forests of pine. 
This animal has now become rare within the limits of 
this town. Wild pigeons annually seek these woods and 
are very common in this town in August. Partridges 
abide." 

Another description of Rochester, written by Abraham 
Holmes in 1821, may also be drawn upon for a few pas- 
sages (see Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. X, 2d Series): 

"Its breadth is about six miles from east to west, 
and its mean length about nine or ten miles, though 



General Features 25 

to the extremity of some points running into the sea it 
is farther. 

" The soil is very variant. Near the centre it is a light 
sandy soil tolerable for tillage, but indifferent for grazing. 
Some parts of the town are rocky, iron-bound, unfit for 
cultivation, and will probably be kept for wood ; in other 
parts the soil is luxuriant, and produces good crops of 
grass. On the seashore are considerable margins of 
salt marsh, without which it would be difficult to keep the 
stock of cattle necessary for the use of its inhabitants. 

" Quitticus 1 Pond is in the northwest corner of this 
town; a small part of the north end is in Middleboro, and 
a small part on the west lies in Freetown. This pond is 
pretty well stored with pickerel and perch. Formerly 
large quantities of alewives went into it through a small 
brook from Assawamsett Pond, but very few pass now. 
A part of Assawamsett Pond lies on the north side of this 
town, and the line of the town crosses two islands of 
considerable bigness in this pond. Assawamsett Pond is 
the largest collection of water in Massachusetts. In this 
pond is a vast quantity of iron ore, which increases nearly 
as fast as it is dug. In the southerly part of this pond 
are large quantities of fish, such as pickerel, white fish, 
perch, roaches, chubs, horn fish, and vast quantities of 
sea or white perch are taken in the fall of the year, when 
the young alewives can be had for bait, which is the only 
bait which can be used with success. The land on the 
southerly side of this pond is very uneven and hilly and 

i That is, Little Quitticus. Mr. Holmes refers to Great Quitticus as 
Assawamsett. Both Pocksha and Great Quitticus lie in the same lake 
bed as Assawamsett. Thus Minister Le Baron (1786) says that "As- 
sawamsit is the largest pond of Rochester." 



26 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

the bottom of the pond is as uneven as the land to which 
it is adjacent. It is not uncommon for water to be from 
ten to twenty-five feet deep, and within a few rods to be 
not more than three or four feet deep. This pond is the 
source of Nemasket River, which is a considerable branch 
of Taunton River. 

"Sniptuit Pond is wholly in this town. The seat of 
this pond may be considered as the height of land. Snip- 
tuit Brook runs north out of this pond into Assawamsett 
Pond, and may be considered as the first source of Taun- 
ton River. Mattapoisett River runs south out of the 
southerly part of this pond. 

" A few rods south of this pond lies Long Pond, nearly 
a mile in length, and from 5 to 20 rods in width. Here 
are large pickerel, but they are of a muddy taste. Not 
far from this, to the south end, lies Snow's Pond, which 
has no visible connexion with any other water. This 
pond is deep and has some fish. It contains perhaps 35 
to 40 acres. 

"On the right hand of the road from Rochester to 
Plymouth lies Merry's Pond, a most beautiful sheet of 
water, and is nearly as round as a circle. In this pond 
are a few fish of the minor species. There is no natural 
inlet or outlet to this pond, but a few years since the town 
at the expense of $100, cut a canal from it to Sippican 
River, hoping to induce the alewives into the pond. No 
success attended the attempt. This pond is about three 
quarters of a mile in diameter. 

"There is no run of water in, this town which geogra- 
phers would call a river, but there are two which are com- 
plimented by that name by the inhabitants. The first of 
these is Mattapoisett River, which issues out of Sniptuit 






General Features 27 

Pond and empties into the sea at Mattapoisett Har- 
bor, after running about eight miles, including its wind- 
ings. This stream, though small, is of some consequence, 
besides what results from the mills, namely, on account 
of the alewive fishery. The other is the Sippican 
River." 

If the two writers who have been quoted had written 
eighty years later, they would doubtless have added to 
their list of lakes the little sheet of water called Leonard's 
Pond. This was the site of the ancient Sippican Mill 
privilege, where many important industries have been 
carried on. Although its interesting features have been 
developed to some extent by artificial means, it is now a 
lakelet of much beauty. Lewis Pond also, though pri- 
marily a mill pond, has landscape features of esthetic 
value. Snow's Pond, a little to the south of Sniptuit, is 
a lovely natural lakelet with steep wooded shores. 

Several of the Rochester lakes contain islands. Those 
of Sniptuit are known as "High Bush," ''Low Bush," 
and "Gull" islands. 

The Sippican River, formed by two long branches, 
receives also the central tributary, which figures in old 
records as "Muddy Brook" and "Ventur's Brook." On 
the maps it is Doggett's Brook, but it is generally known 
as "The Trout Brook," from the large trout that are 
taken in its waters. 

Mattapoisett River, above described, divides near the 
middle of its course, flowing around a tract of land, lying 
partly in Mattapoisett and partly in Rochester, and known 
as Wolf Island. Deacon John H. Clark for many years 
resided upon this island, which is now, however, unin- 
habited. 



28 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Near the "Lower Herring Weir" the river widens into 
a pond where mills were early established and many 
different industries have been carried on. A little to the 
east of the mouth of the river is a shallow sheet of saltish 
water known as Barlow's Eel Pond. It formerly had 
two outlets, one into the river, the other into the harbor, 
between which lay Goodspeed's Island. At these two 
channels, not only eels, but many sea bass and shad, were 
formerly caught. The railroad embankment has closed 
one of the outlets of the Eel Pond, and also lessened its 
fishing interests. 

There are well-known old springs in Mattapoisett, one 
of which the Indians called " Mattapoisett Spring," and 
which is situated on the east bank of the river near the 
"Uncle David Gifford place." Another, which has been 
named King Philip's Crystal Spring, bubbles through a 
sandy tract in the woods a mile or so north of the harbor. 
It has been said that when the inland Indians used to come 
to the shore on their frequent journeys after eels and 
shell-fish they loved to linger beside these springs for rest 
and refreshment. 

A short distance from the old Bates place, near Leon- 
ard's Pond, is another bubbling spring known as "The 
foiling Spring, and not far away is the " Great Button- 
wood," one of the largest of the trees now standing 
in Massachusetts. Mr. George B. Emerson, writing 
in 1846 of the Forest Trees of Massachusetts, says: 

" The plane [or Buttonwood] tree is the largest, grandest 
and loftiest deciduous tree in America. ... In Rochester 
one by the roadside was eleven feet in circumference at 
four feet from the ground." 

The tree is still standing, more than sixty years after 



General Features 29 

these words were written. There are also many other 
buttonwoods "by the Rochester roadsides." The But- 
tonwood (which is also called the American sycamore) is 
conspicuous among our native trees from the fact that the 
thin gray bark easily scales off, showing bright patches 
which have a striking effect among the large green leaves. 
In recent years the Buttonwoods have shown a less healthy 
vitality than was the case a hundred years ago. 

The most marked of the natural features of Old Roches- 
ter is the very extended shore line made by the harbors 
and the enclosing "Necks." An ancient town record 
names Cromeset Neck, Great Neck, Charles Neck, and 
Mattapoisett Neck, as the four Necks of Rochester town. 
Mattapoisett Neck, which gives to that harbor about two 
miles of western shore line, is called on some of the old 
maps Attansawomock Neck. Its two divisions are com- 
monly referred to as the "East" and "West" Necks. 
On the eastern side of Sippican Harbor is Little Neck 
where the first Ministry lands of Rochester were lo- 
cated. Cromeset Neck, lying between the Weweantit 
and Wankinco rivers, is now in the town of Wareham. 
Certain tracts of upland that are nearly enclosed by 
swamp lands within the town are also called "Necks." 

If one follows on the map the long shore line from west 
to east he finds minor irregularities that are also worthy 
of notice. There is Brandt Island Cove, containing Brandt 
Island, — said to have been named from the water-fowl 
(brant) that used to frequent this spot, — and owned 
(1907) and occupied in summer by George V. Brower 
of New York. Other small islands along the Matta- 
poisett shore are Seal Rocks, Ram Island, and Gravel 
Island. 



30 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

On the eastern shore of Mattapoisett Harbor is Neds 
Point, named from a former owner, Edward Dexter, and 
now occupied by a small government reservation, con- 
taining Neds Point lighthouse; to the eastward of which 
is a curiously shaped peninsula with three projections, 
Angelica Point, Strawberry Point, and Goat Island; the 
last being a narrow serpentine strip of land nearly enclo- 
sing the little bay known as Pine Islands Pond. 

Farther east one comes to Connett Point (formerly 
Cordwood Point), Pease's Point, and Hiller's Cove. 
Between Mattapoisett and Marion is Aucoot Cove 
(formerly spelled Orcoot), containing Haskell Island, 
and receiving the little stream on which the Sparrow mill 
is located. The eastern side of Sippican Harbor is 
broken by a double indentation known as Blankin- 
ship's Cove and Planting Island Cove, partly shut in 
by Little Neck and the low peninsula known as Plant- 
ing Island. Meadow Island is a low, grassy tract 
within the harbor, and a little to the north of Ram 
Island is a tiny islet known as Little Island. The 
most interesting single feature of the harbor is Bird 
Island, which stands off the entrance, well out into the 
bay, crowned with the white lighthouse that adds pictur- 
esqueness to these quiet shores. Great Neck is partly 
divided by the deep indentation known as Wing's Cove, 
the western peninsula terminating in Ruggles's Point, 
formerly known as Butler's Point, from Butler Wing, a 
former resident of this Neck. Great Hill, which is east 
of the cove, attains a height of about 127 feet, and was 
made a station for the United States Coast Survey. 

Although many places along the extended shore line 
are low and marshy, there are also various beautiful 






General Features 31 

sandy beaches; among these being Silver-Shell Beach 
(formerly Nye's wharf beach), overlooking which many 
summer residents of Marion have built their beautiful 
homes. Crescent beach, Pico beach, and other strips of 
shore in Mattapoisett, are of similar character At Aucoot 
Cove, Angelica Point, and other places, are many rocks 
that show the results of strong glacial action. Along the 
shores are the valuable deposits of quahaugs, scallops, and 
other shell-fish, which have been of large food value to 
the inhabitants from Indian times to the present. The 
fishing rights to the shell-fish of the shores and the fish in 
the bay, as well as to the herring of the rivers, have been 
the subject of much town legislation, and in all town 
divisions the rights in these fisheries to all the inhabitants 
of Old Rochester have been carefully preserved. 

With the exception of the hills near Sniptuit Pond, and 
Great Hill in Marion, there are no elevations of importance 
in the Old Rochester lands. A few higher points like 
Vaughn's Hill, Braley's Hill, Cathell's Hill, may be men- 
tioned, and reaching north from the central part of Can- 
nonville in Mattapoisett is a somewhat elevated strip 
that has been named Oakland Heights. 

The grassy land of the necks and the shore lands in 
general furnished to the colonists "hey grounds"; and 
here salt hay is still harvested yearly though less valued 
than of old. They were also used for pasturage, and for 
years these Necks in general were held as a "common 
field " for the stock-raising inhabitants of the old town. 

The Menchoisett region is largely a sandy plain, the 
deposit apparently of a great lake formed under glacial 
influences. A large, level region a mile or so northeast 
of the center is known as Walnut Plain. 



32 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

But there are in Old Rochester large swampy tracts 
that have never been populated though they are valued 
for timber. Some of these are in the northeast part of 
the town, where the branches of the Sippican River take 
their rise. There is also the old "Logging Swamp," 
midway between Sniptuit Pond and the western town line. 
Several others, as Haskell Swamp (formerly Great Bear 
Swamp), Little Bear Swamp, and Great Cedar Swamp, 
lie in the extensive wooded tract that reaches from Roches- 
ter into Marion and Mattapoisett. Among the uplands 
or "necks" that extend into, and are nearly surrounded 
by, these swampy tracts are Horse Neck, Sniptuit Neck, 
and Towser's Neck, where the old Indian Totosin dwelt 
before and during King Philip's War. 

But besides the sandy and swampy tracts there 
are large sections where the light, sandy soil is closely 
filled with huge boulders and smaller rock deposits, 
showing how mighty were the glacial forces that were 
once active in shaping the natural conditions of this 
region. 

There are many interesting single rocks. Of these the 
one deserving of first mention is the great Minister's Rock 
in Marion, which, like many another rock or stone in all 
ages and countries, was made use of by the men of old 
when they set up their altars of worship. Another rock 
of great interest is the enormous granite boulder at the 
rear of the summer home of the late Edward Atkinson 
in Mattapoisett; a boulder forty-two feet in height and 
thirty-six in width, divided by a vertical fissure through 
which a footpath runs. The great Ward's Rock at the 
shore, almost on the dividing line between Fairhaven 
and Mattapoisett, for so long a conspicuous landmark 



General Features 33 

from the sea, has in recent years been much reduced in 
size by blasting. 

Joe's Rock, in a picturesque locality of North Rochester, 
near the pumping station of the New Bedford water- 
works, contains Joe's cave, said to have been the hiding- 
place of a fugitive of the Revolutionary era. 

In Central Rochester also there are several interesting 
rocks, among which may be named Witch Rock, on the 
corner beside the " Old Country Road." Further back 
in the woods is u Indian Pound Corn," a large table rock 
formation showing the indentation made by the Red 
Man's pestle. There is also a " Devil's Rock," which, 
like many other similar rocks of New England, shows the 
definite impress of the foot of the imp as he leaped from 
the boulder, although this particular Devil's Rock bears 
an added confirmation of its genuineness, in that William 
Harris, Sr., actually saw the fiend when he took the final 
leap. 

In the woods about three quarters of a mile west of 
Rochester Center, running through the old Thompson 
and Sturtevant lands, is a curious ridge of gravel, half a 
mile long and wide enough for a wagon path, which is a 
very perfect specimen of the glacial formation known to 
geologists as an "esker." 

In Mattapoisett is a ledge of ''pink granite," which is 
still being quarried. Minister Le Baron, in 1786, refers 
to this as follows : " In Second Precinct there is a fine 
stone suitable for Building with wh Nantucket Market is 
principaly supplied, and of late some have been exported 
to the Southern States and used for Millstones in ye manu- 
facturing of rice." 

The uplands of Old Rochester are still nearly covered 



34 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

with forests of oak, pine, and cedar, interspersed with 
ash, maple, spruce, walnut, elm, beech, birch, holly, 
sassafras, and other trees. The white pine timber is 
especially valued, and by its rapid growth it keeps up the 
supply of material for the boxboard industry, at the 
numerous sawmills of the region. There is considerable 
undergrowth of vines, huckleberry bushes and other 
shrubby plants. In the early days the Indians kept the 
woods open by frequent burnings, so as to afford free 
passage for travel. 

Along the country roads of the Old Rochester lands 
numerous native wild cherry trees hang out their white 
blossoms in spring, and in the late summer their clusters 
of deep-hued berrylike fruit. In the spring also the 
blossoms of the "shad-bush" give a feathery whiteness 
to the woodland edges, and the sandy fields and roadsides 
of the old Menchoisett region are covered with lupines, 
making a brave display of color with their showy blue 
racemes. 

Beside the pathways and in the old pastures grows the 
sweet fern redolent of old New England associations ; also 
the bayberry, valued of old as a source of "bayberry 
tallow," the fragrant green "myrtle-wax," formerly used 
for the manufacture of candles; and there is also a plenty 
of the wild indigo weed that countrymen use to stick 
above the horses' ears to keep off offending insects. In 
the swamps are delicious huckleberries to be had in plenty 
by those who can withstand the boggy wetness of the 
places where the juiciest berries prefer to grow. And 
there are low level stretches where the tiny-leaved cran- 
berry vines make a crimson carpet in September when 
thickly hung with the red glossy fruit. In ancient par- 



General Features 35 

lance this was the " craneberry," and, as an old writer 
informs us, "The craneberry is a plenteous production, 
and is sent to a wide vicinage, even to Boston." 

Most of the small wild animals found in early days in 
the woods of Old Rochester still inhabit these regions. 
Wildcats, once numerous, have disappeared, but an 
occasional red fox may yet be seen. Even the deer, once 
apparently extinct in this region, has shown signs of 
resuscitation of late. 

Throughout the summer months the ears of the villagers 
are greeted with the frequent call of the American cuckoo, 
while the whippoorwill sings his pathetic evening call 
from many an old fence or mossy stone. The woods 
abound with tree toads puffing their tiny bladders and 
uttering their trilling notes, and in the marshy places a 
million frogs make a croaking spring music which brings 
to the listeners' ears the pleasant assurance that the 
winter is over, and that all the glories of spring will soon 
be manifest. 

But it is impossible to enumerate all the natural features 
of the Old Rochester lands, which are, after all, not pe- 
culiar to Old Rochester, but are similar to those of all the 
other parts of Southeastern New England. 

Enough has been given to enable one to form a fairly 
correct general picture of the seventy or eighty square 
miles of territory that the men of Rochester bought from 
the old Colony Court in order to build thereon their 
future homes. 



I 



CHAPTER III 

THE BEGINNINGS OF ROCHESTER TOWN, 1679-1700 

N 1679, several persons having proposed to purchase 

lands in Sippican, the Plymouth Court decided to 

accommodate them if they "can procure some more sub- 

stanciall men that are prudent psons and of considerable 

estates/' who would settle with their families. The 

agents to make the purchase were Joseph Lothrop and 

Barnabas Lothrop of Barnstable, Kenelm Winslow of 

Marshfield, and William Clark of Plymouth, Governor 

Josiah Winslow acting for the colony. July 22, 1679, the 

purchasers met for the first time at the house of Mr. 

Joseph Bradford of Plymouth, and the deed was drawn. 

The territory covered more than seventy square miles, 

which, after Wareham was set off in 1739, was reduced to 

about fifty-eight square miles. 

The deed shows the eastern boundary of the purchase 
to have been the "Westerly Jumping Brook" (or Besse 
Brook) of Wareham and the Wankinco River. Some 
other land must have been added, however, for many 
acres east of the Wankinco were afterwards assigned to 
Thomas Clark and other proprietors. 

The purchasers were thirty * in number, but two addi- 
tional shares were set aside for "the Minister and the 

1 The number has sometimes been given as twenty-nine, the name 
of James Clark being omitted from some of the early lists. 



Beginnings of Rochester Town, 1679-1700 37 

Ministrie," and the name of the Indian Connett, added in 
1683, made the whole number of proprietary shares 
thirty-three, among which these extensive land holdings 
were to be divided. 

March 10, 1679, the proprietors " met at Joseph Burge 
his house at Sandwitch," and ordered that " Mr. Thomas 
Hinckley, Mr. William Paybody, Joseph Warrain, Samuel 
White, and Joseph Lothrop Shall take a vew of the Lands 
of Scippican and determine where the house Lots shall be 
Layed out and if the Land will Beare it to Lay 40 ackers 
to a house Lot and to have for their paines 2s Gd a piece 
in mony." The report as to size of lots must have been 
adverse, for April 15, 1679, the purchasers met again at 
Joseph Burge's and made the first land division by lot, 
giving to each proprietor twenty acres for a house lot and 
forty acres of woodland, sixteen of these home lots being 
at Mattapoisett and sixteen at Sippican. It was allowed 
that those that "mislike" their home lots at Sippican 
might take up home lots in any " Unlayed out lands from 
Charles his meadow and the long swamp to Sippican 
River." The first and second home lots on Great Neck, 
and two lots of the best of the woodland, were also set 
aside for the Minister and the Ministry. 

Those who drew home lots at Sippican were the Min- 
ister, the Ministry, Elizabeth Ellis, James Clarke, Wil- 
liam Clarke, Samuel Briggs, Seth Pope, William Pay- 
body, Joseph Burge, Benjamin Foster, Benjamin Bartlett, 
Kenelm Winslow, Ralph Powel, Joseph Dunham, Thomas 
Clark, Aaron Barlow, — 16. 

Those who drew home lots at Mattapoisett were Samuel 
Hammond, Joseph Dotey, Samuel Davis, Samuel White, 
Barnabas Lothrop, George Morton, Joseph Lothrop, 



38 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

John Perry, John Bradford, John Cotton, William Brad- 
ford, John Burge, Moses Barlow, William Dexter, Joseph 
Bartlett, Mr. Thomas Hinckley, — 16. 

In some of the lists of the early proprietors the title 
"Mr." (in those days an honorary title) was given to 
Thomas Clarke, John Cotton, John Bradford, and Wil- 
liam Paybody, as well as to Thomas Hinckley. But with 
the exception perhaps of Thomas Clarke these honorable 
gentlemen do not appear to have taken up their residence 
on the lands of Rochester. 

Joseph Lothrop was the first Proprietors' Clerk. He 
and his brother Barnabas did not live in Rochester, though 
they had very large land holdings, and were most active 
in the early proprietary affairs. 

A few of the proprietors moved at once into Rochester; 
some sent their sons to occupy their lands; others soon 
sold their shares, which were often divided among several 
purchasers, so that the number of those owning proprie- 
tary rights was soon much increased. From time to time 
new lots were surveyed and drawn. In 1665 it had been 
ordered by the Plymouth Court that the proprietors of 
each town should procure a suitable book for the record 
of their land titles. These old Proprietors' Books, to- 
gether with the colony patent and the Indian deeds, 
furnish the foundation for most of the land titles of New 
England. The Rochester Proprietary records are full 
and valuable, and were kept up for many years. The 
last record of land divisions was made in 1792. Two 
ancient copies of the Proprietors' Book are in existence. 
About 1875-1885, a copy, in four volumes, was begun by 
Mr. Joseph S. Luce of Marion, and finished by Noah 
Hammond, Esq., of Mattapoisett. This authorized copy 



Beginnings of Rochester Town, 1679-1700 39 

is kept at the Registry of Deeds in Plymouth. Another 
copy was made by Mr. Hammond for the town of Matta- 
poisett. 

Laws for the new township were at first made at the 
proprietors' meetings, which after 1694 began to be held 
in Rochester itself. June 4, 1686, the town was incor- 
porated, under the name, "Rochester-town in New 
England." Soon after this, laws for the town began to 
be made by the freemen at town meeting, but the opinions 
of the proprietors continued to have much weight in town 
affairs. 

Aaron Barlow, Samuel White, and Samuel Hammond 
were selectmen in 1690, the earliest whose names have 
been recorded. The town books now in existence begin 
with the records of 1697, but mention is made of records 
before this date. Mark Haskell was town clerk in 1697. 
At his death, a year or two later, Peter Blackmer was 
chosen, and held this office for many years. The honor 
of being town clerk was its chief emolument, but occa- 
sionally a small sum was paid as the " Proffits of the townes 
books." Thus, in 1711, Peter Blackmer was paid the 
sum of twenty shillings " for keeping the townes books 
for about 11 years past." The closely written old town 
books of Rochester have never been copied, but they 
form a most important compendium of local history. 

To attract settlers the proprietors voted that u them that 
first settell and are livers " should be allowed to make ten 
barrels of tar apiece, "of the kind comonly called small 
barrells," upon the commons for their own benefit. But 
lest the purchasers who were not settlers should claim the 
privilege of making tar it was ordered that none of these 
should be "alowed to Burne or make any Tarr of the 



y 



40 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

pine knots or wood for the space of five years." Tar was 
an important article of commerce until after the Revolu- 
tion, and in 1704 a law was passed against unauthorized 
"milking of the pine trees" on the common lands. It 
was also ordered that no "tymber claboarding shingling 
or coopers stuff " should be exported out of the town, and 
if any were brought to the landing-place as if for export, 
" it shall be forfeited one half to the informer and one half 
to the town." "Twentie shilings" was the "penaltie" 
for every tree or part of a tree thus exported. 

The woods abounded in foxes, wildcats, and other 
small animals. The early records have many entries of 
bounties paid for "3 catts in season," "two foxes out of 
seson," for crows, redbirds, jaybirds, squirrels, and other 
animal pests. Foxes' heads brought "3 shillings for old 
ones, and one shilling for young ones puppied this year." 
The animals must be presented, however, "with both 
thir ears on to be cut off." In 1694 forty shillings was 
paid for "the killing of two grown woulves in our town." 
In 1706 each householder was required to bring in his 
animal quota of four crows and twelve blackbirds killed 
by the bringer, or must forfeit twopence for each black- 
bird and sixpence for each crow that was lacking. In 
1738 each male twenty-one years old was required to 
kill " 6 crowbill Blackbirds or Bluebirds, or 4 squirrels or 
2 crows all well grown," or on failure to do so, " to have 
2 shillings added to their next town tax." 

Dogs kept to protect sheep were often troublesome. 
The white men had learned from the Indians to use her- 
rings as a fertilizer for corn, one or two being planted in 
each hill. But dogs uprooted the corn to dig for herrings. 
So in 1703 it was ordered that "every dog, Bitch, or dog 



Beginnings of Rochester Town, 1679-1700 41 

kind" should be fettered on the 20th of April for forty 
days by "haveing one of their fore feet fastened up to 
their neck," and if any person should set his dog at large 
not so tied during that period, " any person may kill such 
dog, Bitch, or Dog kind." 

One of the earliest needs of the town was a gristmill, 
and in 1683 twenty acres of land were laid out on the two 
sides of Sippican River as a mill privilege. Aaron Barlow 
and Joseph Burge were appointed to set up the mill, 
which was to be of " such Capacitie as She may grind the 
corne of the Inhabitants for twentie years." Aaron 
Barlow declined the commission, however, and the work 
devolved on Joseph Burge alone. Towards this first mill 
William Connett paid for himself and his brother "six 
barrells of tar," while the other proprietors were taxed 
ten shillings apiece. 

The exact location of this first mill is not definitely 
stated, but a few years later the mills at "Leonard's Pond " 
were known as the "Sippican Mills," and here important 
industries were carried on in all the generations of the 
Old Town History. In 1694 permission was given for 
another gristmill to be set up in Mattapoisett. In 1704 
the commission for the first mill having expired, a very 
important gristmill was erected at "Leonard's Pond." 
It had a perpendicular shaft, and was tended by Peter 
Blackmer, who was also the town clerk. Near Peter 
Blackmer's mill the town also gave a piece of land to 
Anthony Coomes on condition that he " do the work of a 
smith among us for seven years." 

In 1685 the towns of Plymouth Colony were divided 
into three counties, Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable, 
and the judicial department of the government was trans- 



42 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

ferred to the county. Rochester was at first included in 
Barnstable County, perhaps to preserve the balance of 
the counties, for of the twenty towns in the colony, Barn- 
stable had six towns, including Rochester. In 1707 
Rochester sent a petition to be transferred to Plymouth 
County, and in 1709 the transfer was made. About 
1735 a petition for a new county was sent to Boston from 
Rochester and Dartmouth, but nothing finally came of it. 

In 1689 the town of Rochester sent Joseph Burge as 
its first representative to the General Court of Plymouth. 
He was succeeded in 1690 and 1691 by Aaron Barlow, 
In 1690 also, two militia officers were appointed in Roches- 
ter, Lieut. John Hammond, and Ensign Joseph Dotey. 

In 1692 Sir William Phipps arrived at Boston from 
England with the new Province Charter which united 
Plymouth with Massachusetts. In July of this year the 
Plymouth General Court held its final session, at which 
it appointed the last Wednesday in August as a day of 
general fasting and humiliation, and then adjourned. 
But at this final session the Rochester representative, 
Aaron Barlow, was not in his seat. It does not appear 
that the men of Rochester took, at first, a very active 
interest in the new province of which they had become a 
part. They were occupied in clearing lands, building 
houses, and piling up painfully the long stone walls 
which we still see in various localities. It was not until 
1714 that Rochester sent a representative to the General 
Court at Boston, in the person of Samuel Prince, giving 
him four shillings a day "for his panes." 

Although the men of Rochester were " substancial and 
prudent psons," there was little money in circulation. 
Plymouth Colony as a whole was poor, and at the end of 



Beginnings of Rochester Town, 1679-1700 43 

the Indian war its debt was larger than its whole available 
wealth. Property was chiefly in lands and buildings. 
In 1692 the total wealth of the colony was 35,000 pounds, 
of which Scituate, the largest town, had 4360 pounds. 
The ratable estate of Rochester, at this era, was 367 
pounds, the only town having less wealth being Freetown, 
which was rated at 349 pounds. 

The first constables of Rochester were chosen in 1692. 
After this date the collection of taxes devolved on the con- 
stable, and the office became most unpopular. It was 
voted that if one were elected as constable and refused to 
serve he should be fined. Many a man did refuse, and 
paid the fine rather than take the difficult position. The 
attempt to keep the office of constable filled, occupied 
much time in early town meetings. 

In every New England town religious worship at once 
engaged attention. One of the provisions of the Rochester 
grant required that worship should be established within 
four years. In 1683 agents were appointed to find 
"some meet person to preach the word of God at Scip- 
pican." The man selected was Mr. Samuel Shiverick, a 
Huguenot, who had fled from Catholic persecution in 
France. His first pulpit is said to have been Minister's 
Rock, at Little Neck. A meeting-house was soon pro- 
vided, however, of which Hon. Abraham Holmes (b. 
1754) has written: "It was small, and I think cost 20<£. 
It was afterwards sold and made two corn-houses." Mr. 
Shiverick was given the use of certain ministry lands, and 
"a house or frame was got up for him." It was agreed 
that non-resident proprietors should pay him five shillings 
a year, and resident proprietors two shillings a year for 
* his paines " in preaching, and the next year it was ordered 



44 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

that all landholders should be taxed ten shillings for his 
support. But no permanent settlement as the town's 
minister was ever given him, and after four years he 
removed to Falmouth. 

He was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Arnold, Jr., son of 
Minister Arnold of Marshfield. In 1687, Mr Arnold 
was invited to "settle," and was given a whole proprietary 
share on condition that "he continue in the work of the 
ministry among us until prevented by death." He began 
his preaching in the little meeting-house by Minister's 
Rock. But few new settlers were coming to this part of 
the town. The flow of population was from this point 
towards Great Neck, Wareham, Leonard's Pond, and 
upper Sippican village. In 1685 lots were laid out " in 
the woods " at Rochester Center, and before long settlers 
began to find their way there, and into the more northern 
parts of the town. 

The year 1694 was an important one in the annals of 
Rochester. About this time many changes were made 
in the land holdings. Lots were exchanged, or were 
thrown up, and new ones drawn. Minister Arnold now 
came into possession of land that was later known as the 
Sturtevant farm, and between this date and 1697 he had 
built a house on it and moved to that locality. July 10, 
1694, an important meeting of the Proprietary was held 
in Sandwich, at the house of Samuel Prince, who about 
this time bought out Benjamin's Foster "whole shear," 
and was also chosen clerk of the records. 

About this time also a definite effort was begun by the 
town to establish its permanent center. In February, 
1694-5, Woodlot No. 17, belonging to Isaac Little, was 
chosen as a place to "sett a meetinghouse." It is de- 



Beginnings of Rochester Town, 1679-1700 45 

scribed as lying " on the west side of Muddy Brook below 
where the Rhode Island way goes over." But the town 
was not at that time ready to build, and three years later 
Woodlot No. 30 was chosen, the owners of which now 
threw it up, and received in return a like number of acres 
in the "undivided." 

In 1697 the town exchanged its " Ministry lands by the 
Sea" for lands in the interior, and Samuel Briggs, an 
early settler of Little Neck, whose twelve-year-old daughter, 
Eliza, is said to have been the first person interred in the 
ancient burying-ground by Minister's Rock, was allowed 
to take up the lands around the little meeting-house, in 
consideration of his having allowed a cartway to be made 
through his lands to the " town's generall landing-place." 
On the new ministry lands thus chosen at the Center, 
the town now voted to lay out a burying-ground, and a 
training field, and "a place to sett a meetinghouse," 
while a part of the land was " to ly and remaine the Min- 
istry." A woodlot to the north of Rochester Church is 
still known as "The Ministry." There were many 
other ministry lands, however, in various parts of the 
town, that were afterwards divided up among the 
parishes. 

But although the general location of the central public 
lands of Rochester was decided upon in 1697, there were 
still some months of doubt and discussion as to the exact 
site for the important building which was to be the center 
for the town's civic and religious life. 

February 2, 1699, it was "voted that the meetinghouse 
shall be sit on the westerly sid of the long Bridg." 

This obscure and apparently incredible statement on 
the pages of the town's books has been one of several 



46 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

confusing factors which led to the loss, during several 
generations, of all real knowledge or agreement as to the 
actual location of the important meeting-house built by 
the town in 1699. 

It did not seem possible that there was any "long 
Bridg" at Rochester Center. But further study has 
brought to light facts bearing on this question. If one 
follows the trout brook a few rods to the rear of Capt. 
Judah Hathaway's house he may find to-day traces of a 
very ancient road crossing the brook at this point. This 
is a part of the oldest road from Rochester Center toward 
Little Neck and Sippican, the road that was in use when 
the meeting-house was built. Between this point and 
the burying-ground much of the land is low, and though 
at present it is dry and arable, this was not always the case. 
Mr. Holmes writes in his memoirs : " One thing is re- 
markable. When I was young, old people said they could 
remember when people caught fish in a brook which ran 
across where the road turns to go to Deacon Dexter's, 
between Charles's and the meeting-house. There are now 
no signs of a brook there, but the vestiges yet may be 
traced from the brook westward until it comes nearly in 
range with Ruggles's house." In imagination one can 
seem to see a stretch of corduroy road made of pine logs, 
crossing this ancient brook and the trout brook and the 
wet lands near by, and known perhaps to the early settlers 
of Rochester as "the long Bridge." 

But, whatever the structure called the "long Bridge" 
may have been, the location of the meeting-house is no 
longer in doubt. From independent and authentic sources 
we know to-day that the meeting-house stood a few rods 
westward from the low tract referred to, and within the 



Beginnings of Rochester Town, 1679-1700 47 

limits of the town's burying-ground, which is indeed 
the only natural place to look for it. 

In 1699 the Meeting-house was built, and with this 
event began a new era in the town history. The scat- 
tered interests of the growing villages were now in a meas- 
ure united. At a town meeting held June 4, 1700, "The 
inhabitance had before them the accompts of some of the 
chang that necessarily is coming and hath been in sd 
town of Rochester, and being sensable of the necessity of 
mony to be Received for a town stock or Treasury, the 
inhabitance voted that a Rat of thirty shillings be raised 
to defray the necessary chang arising in sd town of Roches- 
ter, in the year 1700." 

With this change in the town of Rochester in the year 
1700, the period of beginnings may be said to be passed, 
and with the new century the town entered on its second 
stage of history, an interesting era of general town 
development. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE SETTLERS AND THE SETTLEMENTS 

BEFORE the year 1700, settlement had spread thinly 
over the whole Rochester territory, and beginnings 
had been made toward several villages that grew up later 
within the town. 

The two largest villages of Old Rochester, however, 
Mattapoisett Village and the Lower Village at Marion, 
were not among the points earliest settled. 

In 1879 Mr. Wilson Barstow wrote of Mattapoisett: 

" In 1750 there was no village on the harbor. Some 
four houses were located on what is now Main Street, the 
Deacon Tobey house; the Sherman house, on the site 
where Colson now resides; the Jas. Mendell house burnt 
some years ago, and Gideon Barstow Jr's. on the site of 
the R. L. Barstow house." 

The earliest homes in Mattapoisett were near the 
Mattapoisett River and in Pine Island, Hammondtown 
being the oldest village. 

The first homes in Sippican were at Little Neck, but 
this never grew into a settlement of much size. At various 
points on Great Neck, Wareham, and along the shores, 
the population increased and a village was soon formed 
at the " Upper Landing," which is now (by the building 
of new houses all along the shore) fast becoming indis- 



The Settlers and the Settlements 49 

tinguishable as a separate village from the larger one that 
finally grew up at the "Lower Landing." 

As the interests of the town quarter have always been 
largely agricultural, no very concentrated village has ever 
been formed within it, though many sites of ancient 
houses could be pointed out where to-day no dwelling is 
to be seen. Some of the earlier homes in this pait of the 
town were near the mill site, at Leonard's Pond, some- 
thing of a village being formed there at an early date. 
But over the general town territory, even to the northern 
border, population spread somewhat rapidly. 

Two large sections of Old Rochester have never had 
many inhabitants, — the region on the northeast, known 
as Horse Neck, and the great wood containing the swampy 
tracts near the corner of the three towns of the present. 

Of the sixteen proprietors who drew house-lots in Mat- 
tapoisett, three, Samuel Hammond, Moses Barlow, and 
William Dexter, settled on their lands at an early date. 
Several others or their descendants came to Rochester, 
but the place of their residence is less distinctly fixed. 

The first settlers at Mattapoisett were probably Samuel 
Hammond (one of the proprietors) and John, his brother, 
who came from Sandwich in 1680 and settled in the south- 
west part of the town. Both were men of wealth and 
influence. Samuel Hammond was one of the founders 
of the First Church of Rochester. His land on West 
Neck was bought from Hugh Cole of Swanzey, who was 
the first white owner, but Samuel Hammond was prob- 
ably the first English occupant. 

John Hammond held many important public offices, 
and was the second representative from Rochester to the 
Province Court. In 1691 he married Mary, the eldest 



50 Mattapoisetf and Old Rochester 

daughter of Minister Arnold of Rochester. His home 
was near to the herring weir, where aboul 1700 he buili a 
fine house which is still standing in good preservation, and 
is the oldesl house within the limits of Old Rochester 

territory. 

In 1684, Benjamin Hammond, 1 who was (lie father of 
these brothers, and whose mother (widow Elizabeth Ham- 
mond) with her children had belonged to Parson Lo- 
throp's congregation of Scituate, came to Rochester and 
purchased for twcnty-si\ pounds half of a proprietor's 
share. 

A younger son of Benjamin Hammond. Benjamin 
Hammond, Jr., also came to Rochester, and with his 
numerous descendants gave the name to the village of 
Hammondtown, a mile or so from the harbor, where 
Hammond Cemetery is located, and the first meeting- 
house in Mattapoisett was built Benjamin Hammond, 
Jr., was a noted surveyor of the region. In 1723 he 
became the special surveyor of the town of Dartmouth, 
But he also made extensive surveys in his own town of 
Rochester. At Plymouth Court-house may be seen a 
book containing five hundred drawings, showing surveys 
of Rochester lands, more than half of these drawings 
having been made by Benjamin Hammond. They are 
of especial technical interest in showing the methods 
used, and the ways in which land areas were estimated. 

Descendants of the Hammond brothers settled early 
on Mattapoisett Neck and in other parts of Mattapoisett, 

1 Benjamin Hammond was the own cousin of William Penn, the 
founder of Pennsylvania, his mother Elizabeth, the widow of William 
Hammond of London, being the daughter of the Admiral, Sir William 
Penn. 



The Settlers and the Settlements 51 

some also going to Sippican where many Hammonds have 
lived. The name has been a prominent one in all eras 
of the town history. 1 Nathaniel Hammond, Edward 
Hammond, Gideon Hammond, and Enoch Hammond 
figured conspicuously in the Revolutionary history of 
Rochester town. 

Israel Hammond (the great-grandfather of the Noah 
Hammond who copied the Proprietors' Books) was a 
prominent man in business, church, and society, and kept 
a slave, Uncle Tom, who held an honorable position as a 
member of the family. The story is told that once when 
efforts were being made at the Hammond Mill to catch a 
thief, Tom said he was afraid. "Afraid of what?" he 
was asked. "Afraid the thief is one of our good old 
honest neighbors," was the reply. A few slaves were 
then owned in New England, and the ships of Massachu- 
setts towns brought them over rather freely for the south- 
ern market. Freedom was offered to Mr. Hammond's 
" Uncle Tom," but he declined to accept, and died a 
slave and a self-respecting and honest man. 

Another proprietor who came early to Mattapoisett 
and settled near the river was Moses Barlow. The oldest 
of the Mattapoisett graveyards is to-day known as the 
"Old Barlow Cemetery." Wilson Barstow wrote: 

" The Barlows and Hammonds were the ancient nobility 
of the place. 

" Old Deacon Barlow, one of the first proprietors to 
lay out land, was famous in his day as a deacon, pillar of 

1 A " Hammond Genealogy " compiled and published in 1894 by 
Rowland Hammond, M.D., a native of Mattapoisett, gives much in- 
formation of this family and of their participation in the town's 
history. 



52 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

the church, and leader in society. It is said that when 
the wife of Deacon Barlow died, he mourned for her with 
due propriety for a year and a day. Then mounting his 
horse, he rode to the house of a maiden lady, and having 
knocked with his cane without dismounting, he greeted 
her with ' Good morning, I am in pursuit of a wife; if you 
will have me, I will come in, if not, I shall go farther.' 
'Why, Deacon,' was the reply, 'How you astonish me! 
Thank you, you had better come in.' A few days later 
there was a wedding, and the Deacon took his new wife 
home on a pillion behind him." 

The third proprietor mentioned who came to Matta- 
poisett was William Dexter, whose descendants in town 
have been about as numerous as those of Benjamin Ham- 
mond, and have figured conspicuously in both church and 
town history. His home was at Pine Island, where he 
had a farm three fourths of a mile square, with a brook 
running through it. At the "Dexter Dam" on this 
stream a sawmill and a gristmill were built at an early 
date. Benjamin Dexter, who died in 1732, in his will 
names the mill as a part of his property assets. A house 
built some time before 1800 stands to-day on the site of 
the original Dexter home, and is still owned in the Dexter 
family. 

William Dexter, the proprietor, died in 1694, but four 
of his sons settled in Rochester, and his only daughter, 
Mary Dexter, became the wife of Moses Barlow. Thomas 
Dexter was an early representative, and the names of 
Benjamin and John Dexter figure prominently in the 
early town records. Benjamin married Sarah, a daughter 
of Minister Arnold, and many of Mr. Arnold's extensive 
land holdings passed finally into the hands of his Dexter 



The Settlers and the Settlements 53 

grandchildren. Constant Dexter, a son of Benjamin, 
was an early deacon of the Mattapoisett church. He 
died in military service at Crown Point during the French 
and Indian War. Another of Benjamin's sons, Seth 
Dexter, settled near the church at Rochester Center, on 
land still owned and occupied by his descendants. Rev. 
Henry M. Dexter, D.D., the distinguished leader and 
historian of the Congregational denomination, was a 
descendant of this Dexter line. 1 

Among the proprietors who drew house-lots in Sippican, 
the first mentioned is Mrs. Elizabeth Ellis, a widow, whose 
husband, John Ellis, of Sandwich, died in 1677. In 
1687 Mrs. Ellis was living on her land in Sippican, but 
her descendants two or three generations later were clear- 
ing lands and breaking up the virgin soil in the Ellis 
neighborhood of Mattapoisett. 

Samuel Briggs lived at Little Neck and came into 
possession of the old ministry lands there after the new 
ministry lands had been laid out at Rochester Center. 

Aaron Barlow, who became the second representative 
of the town to the General Court at Plymouth, lived at 
Rochester at an early date, and in 1708 the town built a 
new pound close beside Aaron Barlow's house. 

John Wing's home, the ancestral home of numerous 
Wing descendants, was on Great Neck, but later genera- 
tions lived farther north in Marion, in the vicinity where 
to-day stands the Methodist Church. A large territory 
in this region was once occupied by Wing families. John 
Wing was a surveyor, and about 1700 he wrote a book on 

1 A " Dexter Genealogy " compiled by Robert L. Dexter of Matta- 
poisett, and others, has recently been published, from which knowl- 
edge of this extensive family connection may be gained. 



54 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

surveying, which showed the methods then used. For 
many years persons by the name of Wing held the office 
of town clerk. 

John Wing with Savory Clifton who lived in the same 
vicinity, and a few others, started the Quaker movement 
in Rochester. John Wing and very many of his descend- 
ants lie buried in the old Friends' burying-ground op- 
posite the Methodist church. 

The graves of these early settlers are mostly unmarked, 
but on a small tablet in the enclosure one may read: 

"Within this inclosure lie the 

Remains of 326 Friends : 
200 x 67 Ft." 

Kenelm Winslow, who was a nephew of Governor Ed- 
ward Winslow of Plymouth, owned lands near Leonard's 
Pond, and in Mattapoisett and other places; but it does 
not appear that he ever lived upon these lands. The 
names Job, Thomas, and Edward Winslow, however, 
appear early in the town history. 

Some of the Winslows lived several miles north of the 
Center. The "house of Capt. Edward Winslow in 
Sniptuit" is mentioned in 1726. The old "Whitridge 
House," built in 1695, and recently taken down, was 
originally a "Winslow House." It stood not far from 
Rounseville's Mill, which was originally the "Winslow 
Mill." The house of Mr. Andrew Fearing at the Center 
was also an old Winslow house, moved to its present 
position many years ago from the "Clapp neighborhood." 

The location of some of the proprietors who found homes 
in Rochester cannot be distinctly traced; but families 
bearing the name of Clark were found very early in several 




c 

DC z 

"— z 
z -± 



o 2 



The Settlers and the Settlements 55 

parts of the town. Some of the name of Pope lived near 
the Dartmouth line. There were Bensons in several 
localities, and Davises some time later in the northern 
section and elsewhere. Nicholas Davis and Timothy 
Davis were public speakers of note in the religious de- 
nomination of "Friends" in Rochester. Burge (after- 
wards Burgess) became an early name of Wareham. At 
a later date Burgess was a family name in the Town 
quarter. Tristam Burgess, born in Rochester, after 
graduating at Brown University, became a prominent 
member of Congress from Rhode Island. He was a man 
of impassioned oratory, with keen powers of sarcasm, 
and figured conspicuously in debates with southern mem- 
bers about the middle of the first half of the nineteenth 
century. 

Bumpus (now Bump) was an early name in Wareham, 
along the Weweantit River on which Bumpus's Mill was 
situated. Among the members of the First Church dis- 
missed in 1739 to form the Wareham Church there were 
eight persons named Bumpus. The same persons were 
also leaders in the movement for the incorporation of the 
town of Wareham. 

Samuel White from Marshfield, of the old Mayflower 
stock, was one of the first board of selectmen in 1690. 
The most distinguished of the White descendants in 
Rochester was Lieut.-Col. Ebenezer W r hite, the town 
representative of the Revolutionary era. The location of 
the White family is obscure, but in 1704 John White 
was owner of lands a mile or so east of Rochester Center, 
and at a later date White was a family name in North 
Rochester. 

Dotey, also a Mayflower name, appears at an early 



56 Mattapoisctt and Old Rochester 

date in various land descriptions near the center of the 
town. It was also the name of early settlers in the vicinity 
of Look's Mills. In recent years, Mary Dotey, born in 
Rochester, has been known in musical circles as a con- 
cert singer in America and Europe, under the name of 
Madame Dotti. 

In 1694 Benjamin Foster sold his entire share to Samuel 
Prince of Sandwich, who, before he moved his family to 
Rochester Center owned a house and land at Cromeset, 
which may have been Benjamin Foster's. Several Fos- 
ters of prominence were found later in Rochester. Lieut. 
Chillingsworth Foster, whose grave is in Rochester ceme- 
tery, was a military man of the eighteenth century, and 
early in the nineteenth century Dr. James Foster was a 
prominent physician near Rochester Center, but becom- 
ing depressed on account of financial troubles he finally 
took his own life. 

Among the original proprietors it is probable that the 
two Lothrops, the two Bartletts, the two Bradfords, Ralph 
Powel, George Morton, Joseph Dunham, Thomas Hinck- 
ley, John Cotton, and William Paybody never took up 
their residence in Rochester. 

The earliest list of freemen for Rochester, made in 
1684, is given as follows: 

Mr. Samuel Arnold, Peter Blackmer, John Hammond, 
Moses Barlow, Samuel White, Samuel Hammond, Joseph 
Dotey, Jacob Bumpus, Joseph Burges, John Haskell, 

Sprague, Abraham Holmes, Job Winslow. The 

names of John Wing and Aaron Barlow were soon 
afterwards added. 

From this it appears that Mr. Arnold was living in the 
town before he became the town's minister. At his 



The Settlers and the Settlements 57 

death, in 1709, he left one son, Samuel Arnold, Jr., who 
was a deacon in the First Church, and several daughters. 
Elizabeth Arnold, who married Charles Sturtevant, suc- 
ceeded to the ownership of the family house on "Arnold's 
Plain " at the Center. At the time of the Rochester Bi- 
centennial four generations of Minister Arnold's descend- 
ants were then living in the Sturtevant house at Rochester 
Center. 

Peter Blackmer has already been named as living at 
the Sippican Mill Site, where he was miller as well as 
town clerk. His last descendant in Rochester bearing 
the name of Blackmer — Mr. Garrison Blackmer — 
died a few years ago at his home near the Acushnet border. 

John Haskell, named as freeman in 1684, soon left 
Rochester and went to Middleboro. In 1692, Mark 
Haskell, a brother of John Haskell, came from Salem. 
It is said that he came in haste to avoid serving on the 
jury of a witchcraft trial. He lived a little to the west of 
the meeting-house, and took a prominent part in the town 
affairs for several years, but died in 1699, leaving four 
sons, from whom the different lines of Rochester Haskells 
have descended. Deacon Roger Haskell, the oldest son, 
succeeded his father at the home place, and his descend- 
ants are numerous to-day at Rochester Center. John 
Haskell, the second son, was a minor at the time of his 
father's death, and his mother took up land for him at 
Mary's Pond. He had many descendants, but most of 
his sons finally went to Hardwick. Mark Haskell, the 
third son of Mark, Sr., lived in Rochester, but the ex- 
act location is not clear. Joseph Haskell, the young- 
est son of Mark, Sr., became a man of considerable 
wealth. His last descendant in Rochester, of the name 



58 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

of Haskell — Miss Eugenia Haskell, a woman of interest- 
ing and unique personality — died in 1907 at the age of 
eighty-nine. 

Sprague was a prominent name in Rochester town for 
many years. Samuel Sprague, Noah Sprague, and 
Nathaniel Sprague held important town offices at various 
dates. Samuel Sprague, who was town representative 
before the Revolution, lived a little north of the Center. 
The Spragues intermarried with the Hammonds of Mat- 
tapoisett, and Sprague became a prominent name in that 
village as well as in the more northern part of the town. 

Abraham Holmes, whose name appears in this first list 
of freemen, lived in the northern part of the town. A 
little later we find the names of three brothers, Abraham, 
Isaac, and Josiah Holmes, all living in the vicinity of 
Vaughn's Hill, a little south of Snow's Pond. Abraham 
Holmes (who was also the first deacon of the First Church) 
and Isaac Holmes, known variously as Captain and En- 
sign Isaac Holmes, were both among the signers of the 
Covenant at the founding of the First Church. Ensign 
Isaac Holmes was also in 1700 put in charge of the town's 
herring weir at Sniptuit. Experience Holmes, the son of 
Abraham Holmes, lived on old Weir Hill by Sniptuit. 
Another Abraham Holmes, great-grandson of the first 
Abraham, from whose Memoirs quotations are made in 
this history, moved later to Rochester Center. Other 
Holmeses went to Mattapoisett, and the name Holmes 
has at some period figured prominently in all four of the 
quarters of Old Rochester. 

With the purchase of Benjamin Foster's share in 1694, 
Samuel Prince became a most influential factor in town 
affairs. In addition to Benjamin Foster's share, Mr. 



The Settlers and the Settlements 59 

Prince bought half of Samuel Lothrop's proprietaiy 
rights. He also made other very extensive land purchases 
in various parts of the town, so that he was for some 
years the largest landowner in Rochester. The large 
house which he built in 1710 stood near the trout brook 
on the old road from the Center toward Marion that was 
given up in 1785. The house was called Whitehall, in 
memory of a family estate in England. In later years it 
was known as the White House. At a period long after 
the Prince family had left Rochester, it stood for years as 
a disused building, but during the Revolution its floors 
were taken up " to procure materials for making saltpeter 
for use of the army," and afterwards it was taken down. 

Mr. Prince was twice married, his second wife, who 
came with him to Rochester, being a daughter of Governor 
Hinckley. He was the father of many children, one of 
them being Rev. Thomas Prince, pastor for forty years 
of the Old South Church of Boston, and an important 
New England historian. Mr. Samuel Prince was himself 
a man of education as well as of wealth, and during his 
stay in Rochester he did much to promote the general 
interests of the town, especially in school affairs. He was 
a Justice of the Peace, at that time an important office, 
and he also held for years the office of representative to 
the General Court. 

The Prince family moved to Middleboro in 1723, where 
Samuel Prince died in 1728, at the age of eighty. After 
his death some of his Rochester lands along Muddy Brook 
were made a subject of legal contest among those who 
had been his neighbors, and were voluntarily relinquished 
by the Prince heirs. One son, Joseph Prince, remained 
for a time in Cromeset, and a granddaughter, who had 



60 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

married in town, continued to live here; but for the most 
part the Prince family, which for a few years had been 
very influential, passed out of the Rochester history. 

Another name that appeared in Rochester Center at a 
very early date was that of Clapp. In the earliest town 
records that are preserved, those of 1697, Increase Clap 
is the first name mentioned as that of selectman in thai 
year. Major Earl Clapp was a brave and distinguished 
officer in the Revolution. He was also the leader of the 
party in the First Parish that opposed Minister Moore, 
and for a time brought disruption into the church. 

About 1725, Richard Church, a cousin of Benjamin 
Church, came, with others, from Scituate, and acquired 
a large tract of land at "Macedonia," its northern boun- 
dary being on the old * Rhode Island Path." A few years 
later, he built a sawmill on the Mattapoisett River at 
Wolf Island. The stones of the old cellar and chimneys 
and a few wild apple trees still mark the site of the old 
Church dwelling at "Macedonia." 

Lemuel Church, son of Richard Church, was the first 
of the Church name to be born in Rochester. In 1750 
he married Bethiah Clapp, who outlived her husband by 
sixty years, dying in 1832 at the age of one hundred years, 
perhaps the first of the Rochester centenarians. 

Lemuel Church built his home in what has since been 
called the Church neighborhood, on the old Middleboro 
path from Assawampsett to Mattapoisett, now known as 
the "Mattapoisett Road" or the "Rochester Road." In 
taking his corn for grinding to the mill some miles away, 
he used to sling it on one side of the horse (as did all his 
neighbors), balancing it by a stone of similar weight on 
the other, the more modern method of "dividing the 



The Settlers and the Settlements 61 

grist " not being then invented. After the death of 
Lemuel Church in 1772, his widow Bethiah opened her 
house as an inn, furnishing rum and other ''entertain- 
ment " to foot travelers, — which was much appreciated 
by the Indians, who still occasionally came this way, and 
depended on this as a stopping-place. It is said that on 
one occasion a squaw who had brought her papoose on 
her back strapped to a board, confused perhaps by what 
she had been drinking, carelessly placed the board against 
the side of the room head downward, and ' l in the morning 
there was a little dead Indian." 

In the vicinity of this Church neighborhood there were 
various lands which were held at an early date in the 
name of Cowen or Cowing. Descendants of the Cowings 
still live here, though another Cowen neighborhood ap- 
peared later in the more northern part of the town. 

To the south of the Church neighborhood was the land 
of the Randalls, where Mr. Thomas Randall (one of the 
survivors of the men of Forty-nine) still lives. There 
have been many Randalls in this vicinity, though the 
name Randall was carried to the central and northern 
parts of the town as well. Mr. Jeremiah Randall, who 
died at the Center several years ago, was the oldest resi- 
dent and last person by the name of Randall in the old 
Town quarter at that date. 

Aunt Keziah Randall, a well-known Rochester cen- 
tenarian, was born in 1789, near the site of the Marion 
depot. She was a daughter of Jesse Parlow, and in her 
girlhood it was said that "Kezey Parlow was the hand- 
somest gal for miles around." After the death of her 
husband, who was a soldier of 1812, Aunt Keziah drew 
a United States pension and lived for many years alone in 



62 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

a clearing in the woods to the north of the Friends' meet- 
ing-house, Aucoot, gaining health and enjoyment from the 
care of her vegetable garden. On her hundredth birthday 
in 1889 (though she claimed to be six years older), she 
had many callers to whom she talked entertainingly of her 
reminiscences, saving that she remembered Mattapoisett 
village when it had only four houses and a blacksmith 
shop. 

Another Rochester centenarian was Mrs. Jane Paine, 
who lived beside Mary's Pond, dying in 1891 in her one 
hundred and first year. Paine has also been an old family 
name in the Mattapoisett quarter of Old Rochester. 

In 1790 the first census of the United States was taken, 
in order to secure the population basis for representation 
in Congress, this being as early as it was found practicable 
to do it after the adoption of the Constitution. 

A list of Rochester family names taken from this list, 
together with the towns from which these settlers had 
come, was afterwards published in the Massachusetts 
Historical Collections, in 1815, as follows: 

Sandwich Names — Barlow, Sanders, Burges, Nye, 
Hammond, Swift, Willis, Blackmer, Ellis, Bessey, Wing, 
Black, Hamblin, Dexter, Gifford, Allen. 

Marshfield Names — Arnold, Bumpus, Baker, Winslow, 
Snow, Hathaway, Holmes, Sherman, Sprague, White, 
Dotey, Russell. 

Scituate Names — Church, Turner, Barstow, King, 
Foster, Cowin, Keen, Briggs. 

Plymouth and Middleboro — Savory, Jenny, Tinkham, 
Clarke, Morton, Pierce, Sturtevant, Coome. 

Barnstable — Davis, Lombard, Annable, Chase. 

Yarmouth — Tilley, Sears, Rider, Hiller, White. 



The Settlers and the Settlements 63 

Eastham — Higgins. 

Also a few Rhode Island names, with those of Pease, 
Luce, and Norton from the Vineyard. 

Among the names in this list which have had many 
representatives in Rochester, the Nyes were early settlers 
at Charles's Neck and in the lower part of Marion. Some 
of the oldest graves at the ancient burying-ground of 
Little Neck also bear the name of Nye. At a later era 
the Blankinships intermarried with the Nyes and settled in 
the same region. Allen, Hamblin, Luce, and Savery 
also became well-known Sippican names, though Savery 
became also a name of Center Rochester. Mr. Silas B. 
Allen, Mr. Ichabod Blankinship, and Mr. George B. Nye 
are three men now living in the southern part of Marion 
at an advanced age, whose memories have preserved 
some of the facts relating to old Marion families that are 
mentioned in these pages. 

The Hillers lived at Aucoot (formerly spelled Orcoot) 
and belonged to Quaker circles. They were important 
salt-makers. The Hathaways lived southeast of Mary's 
Pond, near the corner of the present towns of Wareham, 
Marion, and Rochester, though they were afterwards 
found in many other localities. Several Captain Hatha- 
ways were prominent among the shipmasters that sailed 
from Marion in the seafaring days. 

Of other names given in this 1790 list, Barstow, Jenney, 
Pease, Sturtevant, and Tinkham took root in Matta- 
poisett, though Sturtevant was found at the Center also. 
Pease and Barstow became associated prominently with 
the later ship-building interests of Mattapoisett. 

Swift became a name of Wareham. Pierce was found 
near the Wareham line, and Keen near the Acushnet 



64 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

border. King and Willis became well-known names at 
Rochester Center, though King was found in other local- 
ities also. Gifford, Scars, and Chase were found in several 
localities, though the Gifford neighborhood was in the 
northern part of the town. Sherman was an early name 
both in North Rochester and Mattapoisett, but became 
later a wide-spread name in all the town quarters. Rider 
was found at first in the northern part of the town, later 
at the Center and in other localities. Rider's Mill was 
east of Sniptuit. Snow was at first a North Rochester 
name, and later a name of Mattapoisett also. The Nich- 
olas Snow house near Snow's Pond is one of the oldest 
of Old Rochester houses. 

In 1851 David Hamblen furnished to the Historical 
and Genealogical Register of New England, a list of the 
early men of Rochester, including about seventy-five 
names. The list, however, has imporlant omissions, ami 
does more justice to some sections of the town than to 
others. Among the names given in this list that have not 
already been mentioned may be found: Andrews, Ashley, 
Blackwell, Bowles or Bolles, Claghorne, Danforth, Grif- 
fith, Haskins, Johnson, Leavitt, Marshall, Raymond, 
Robinson, Stevens, Stewart, Sommers, Thomas, and 
Wiatt. Some of the names given by Mr. Hamblen are no 
longer represented in the town, but Ashley and Bolles 
and a few others are still well-known names of this region. 

Among Old Rochester names should be given also those 
of the descendants of the early ministers, Ruggles, Hovey, 
LeBaron, West, Moore, and Cobb. Also that of the early 
schoolmaster, De La Noy (Delano). Later ministers of 
Old Rochester, even if they left no descendants in the 
town, yet held important relations during the period of 



The Settlers and the Settlements 65 

their pastorate. The names Chaddock, Bigelow, Har- 
rington, Robbins, Thatcher, Briggs, Crandon, Brett, 
Sanger, Vose and Faunce are also names that belong 
to Old Rochester history. 

From ancient graveyard inscriptions, lists of baptisms, 
marriages, military rolls, etc., a much longer list than has 
been given could be compiled, of names that may be 
considered as distinctive Rochester names of the eight- 
eenth century. Fearing, Bassett, Mendell, Parlow, 
Spooner and Whitridge appear in town at an early date. 
Fearing was at first a Wareham name. Israel Fearing, 
a large landowner in the eastern edge of the town, was 
active in having that region incorporated with Agawam 
into the new town of Wareham. Bassett and Whitridge 
were prominent names for awhile and then passed out 
of town history. Parlow belonged to Parlow town, and 
later to other localities. Mendell has had a wide dis- 
tribution in many parts of Old Rochester. Three per- 
sons of the name of Spooner were in Minister Arnold's 
first church list. 

At the beginnings of the North Rochester parish it 
included (according to a statement made by Rev. J. P. 
Trowbridge) families bearing the names of Ashley, Ben- 
nett, Bisbee, Briggs, Clark, Crapo, Fuller, Haskell, Mor- 
ton, Nye, Pope, Snow, Swift, White, Whitridge, Winslow, 
and Wood. 

About 1800 (according to a statement made by Mrs. 
P. A. Wadhams) Coomb, Hooper, Hopestill, Perkins, 
Pierce, Reed, Bennett, Bisbee, Burges, Clark, Shaw, and 
Thatcher were family names of North Rochester, and, a 
little later still, Crandon, Omans, Sears, and Randall 
were also found there. 



I 

66 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Among old Marion names not before mentioned may 
be given Deane, Gurney, Hadley, Handy, Hammett, 
Lewis, and Pitcher. Betsey Pitcher, who became Mrs. 
Elizabeth Taber, did much for modern Marion by her 
liberal bequests to the town and the church, and especially 
by the endowment of the academy that bears her name. 

Among old Mattapoisett families not before mentioned 
are those bearing the names of Ames, Atsatt, Cannon, 
Eaton, Harlow, Howes, Mead, Macomber, Meigs, Pur- 
rington, Sisson, Southworth, and Stevens. 

Near the beginning of the nineteenth century the names 
Sparrow and Thompson came into Rochester Center 
from Middleboro. Some of the Sparrows went soon to 
Mattapoisett, where Dr. William E. Sparrow was a prom- 
inent physician for more than half a century until his 
death in 1899. 

Early in the nineteenth century the names Bonney and 
Leonard became prominent at the Center. The brothers 
Charles and George Bonney held many town offices, and 
also kept a store where considerable business was done. 
Mr. Charles Leonard did much to beautify his estate near 
the old Sippican Mill site, employing many men to build 
out of hewn stone long stretches of wall, that are a marked 
feature to-day of the Leonard (now the Rhodes) estate. 
Mr. Leonard (and later his wife) gave also liberal be- 
quests to the town and the First Parish of Rochester. 

A little before the middle of the century the Scotch 
names of Rankin and Smellie came into Rochester, where 
the Scotch name of Douglass had already taken root as 
an old town name. 

But most of the family names that belong to the vil- 
lages of Old Rochester refuse to be classified on either a 



The Settlers and the Settlements 67 

local or a temporal basis. Some were in the town for a 
generation or two, and then passed out of the locality; as 
Peckham, Vaughn, Cathell. A much larger number 
were in the town from an early period, and either distrib- 
uted themselves very soon in many quarters, or were 
found first in one section and later in quite another. 

The following additional names will, however, be recog- 
nized by students of Rochester history as having at some 
time (and usually for a long time) held such town rela- 
tions that they may be considered distinctively names of 
Rochester before the middle of the nineteenth century: 
Bates, Bartlett, Barrows, Bishop, Bourne, Bryant, Braley, 
Burbank, Cole, Cushman, Chubbuck, Denham, Dunham, 
Freeman, Gammons, Gage, Gerrish, Gibbs, Gillett, Hall, 
Hatch, Haskins, Howland, Howes, Jefferson, Johnson, 
Look, Lombard, Manter, Martin, Maxim, Mitchell, 
Morse, Norton, Nickerson, Rogers, Rounseville, Russell, 
Shaw, Shurtleff, Sisson, Smith, Snell, Southworth, Stet- 
son, Taylor, Thatcher, Tilson, Tinkham, Tobey, Tripp, 
Washburn, Westgate, West. 

And there are family names, not so old to the region, — 
some that came in about the period of the town divisions, 
and many that have come later still into the towns that 
have been formed out of this territory, — that are also 
assimilating themselves into the local history, and will 
figure prominently in the histories of the modern towns 
that may yet be written. 

Among the names that have here been recorded there 
are not a few that have been carried by sons of Rochester 
into business and professional circles of other localities. 
It is a remarkable fact that of the present Massachusetts 
Judiciary, in 1907, three are natives of this old town : — 



G8 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

John Wilkes Hammond and Henry King Braley, Justices 
of the Supreme Judicial Court, and Lemuel LeBaron 
Holmes, Justice of the Superior Court. Theophilus 
King is well known in Boston business circles. Dr. Wil- 
liam H. Cobb is librarian at the Congregational House. 
The four Johnson brothers, Arnold, Augustus, Joseph, 
and Lorenzo, all attained distinction in the professions 
or in business. In the world of letters is the name of 
Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard, of Mattapoisett, and Rich- 
ard Henry Stoddard, who, after his mother married 
James Gallon, spent some of his boyhood days in that 
village. Woodbridge R. Howes, who for a time con- 
ducted a private school in Mattapoisett, and who served 
as a volunteer surgeon through the Civil War, had an 
extensive practice as a physician in Hanover, Mass. 
John L. Gifford attained the rank of Lieutenant in the 
Navy and did daring work in command of scouting ex- 
peditions at the siege of Charleston. Among military men 
were Major Rogers L. Barstow, and Brig.-Gen. Wilson 
Barstow who was on the staff of General Dix. Solomon 
E. Sparrow, whose father, Dr. William E. Sparrow, of 
Mattapoisett, had served as a surgeon in the Civil War, 
was a graduate of West Point and a captain in the 
regular army. These and many others have been writ- 
ing deeply on the social life of other communities the 
family names of Old Rochester. 

Among the interesting and ancient houses of Rochester 
that are still standing are the Nicholas Snow house, near 
Snow's Pond; the Bates house, the Sherman house, and 
the Savery (or old Haskell) house. Historic houses that 
have been taken down or burned within a few years, but 
which had been well known as landmarks, were the old 



The Settlers and the Settlements 69 

Ruggles Tavern, the Whitridge (or Winslow) house, and 
the Bourne (or Major Gifford) house. The Sippican 
Hotel at Marion is in part an ancient structure. The 
oldest house within the limits of the old Rochester territory 
is the Lieut. John Hammond house at Mattapoisett 
Herring Weir, built about 1700. Other ancient dwellings 
of interest in Mattapoisett are the Hovey house, and the 
" Old Mansion " built by Minister LeBaron. In the 
village the Wilson Barstow house and some others along 
Main and Water streets, and various ones on Cannon 
and Pearl streets, are old houses. So also is the Benjamin 
Barstow (Samuel Dexter) house at Cannon ville. Many 
of those now standing on the Necks are ancient, as also a 
considerable number at Hammondtown and Tinkham- 
town ; and various ones scattered through Aucoot and Pine 
Islands either stand in their original form or have been 
enlarged and modernized. Although there are various 
gambrel and hip-roofed houses in Rochester, it is to be 
noted that there are none at Mattapoisett. 

The effort that has been made in this chapter to bring 
together in brief enumeration the old families of the 
Rochester territory is necessarily very imperfect and in- 
complete. It must be the task of the genealogist of the 
future, one with a taste for antiquarian research and 
years of time at his command, to give an adequate 
account of the people who have lived and died and 
the families that have taken root on the soil of Old 
Rochester. 

It has been shown that the names cannot be very defi- 
nitely localized, as most families spread themselves widely, 
through marriage and removals, into various parts of the 
town territory. 



70 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

But while family names refuse to confine themselves 
in local or temporal relations, localities always have a 
marked tendency to assume some personal name and 
sometimes persist in carrying it even when the personality 
suggesting it has become a shadow of the past. For in- 
stance, what do we know to-day of the traditional "Mr. 
Merry," whose modified name has given rise to false 
legends relating to Mary's Pond? 

As one looks over the maps of Old Rochester, and listens 
to the speech of the people, he comes upon geographical 
and institutional names, almost without number, that tell 
much of the history of families and of persons and of the 
general lines of the town settlement. 

Thus in Mattapoisett one may hear of Cannonville, 
Hammondtown, Randalltown, Tinkhamtown; of the Ellis 
neighborhood, Tripps Mills, of Pease's Point, Good- 
speed's Island, Barlow's Eel Pond; of the Barlow Ceme- 
tery, Hammond Cemetery, Hammond Street, Cannon 
Street, Barstow Street, Tobey Street, Dexter Street; of 
Purrington Hall and the Barstow School. 

In Rochester of to-day one may hear of Snow's Pond, 
Leonard's Pond, Lewis Pond; of Pierceville, Parlow town, 
the Church neighborhood, the Morse neighborhood, the 
Gifford neighborhood, the Rounseville neighborhood; of 
Braley Hill, Vaughn's Hill, Cathell Hill, the Bisbee 
Corner, Cowen's Corner, the Sherman Corner, the Sher- 
man Cemetery; of Look's Mills, and Cushman's store, as 
names of localities, — of Haskell Swamp, Bonney Hill, 
the Dexter Road, Old Parlow Road; the Waterman 
School, and the Stuart School. 

In western Wareham are Fearing's Hill, Blackmore's 
Pond, and the Hathaway neighborhood. And in Marion 



The Settlers and the Settlements 71 

one may hear of Wing's Cove, Blankinship's Cove, Clapp's 
Island, Haskell Island, Hammett's Cove, Nye's Wharf, 
Ruggles's Point, Mendell's Bridge, Briggs's Neck; of 
Allen's Corner, Hadley's Corner, Hamblen's Corner, 
Handy's Grove, and of Tabor Academy. 

Thus do human lives write their names upon features 
of nature, and upon institutions, even while the personal- 
ities themselves fade away into the indistinct background 
of history. 



CHAPTER V 

THE EARLY CHURCH AND THE PRECINCTS 

AS in every New England town, the first thought of the 
settlers of Rochester was to provide for the religious 
needs of the community, and as soon as possible to or- 
ganize a church. The establishment of worship at Little 
Neck is in a true sense a part of the history of the First 
Church of Rochester, even though " for want of members 
to Imbody " no church was really organized in that locality. 
But the place has intrinsic and historic interest. In the 
words of Rev. H. L. Brickett, pastor of the Congregational 
Church at Marion: 

"This place of worship at Little Neck is picturesque, 
with its massive Minister's Rock round which the Indians 
held their pow-wows, and close at hand the, ancient burial- 
ground where sleep the early dead." 

The religious impulses that started in the little tem- 
porary house of worship where Mr. Shiverick and Mr. 
Arnold preached for a few years have been transmitted 
to all the churches that occupy the Old Rochester territory. 

But as the growing population spread rapidly over the 
whole town, it became evident at a very early date that 
this locality could not be the center of the religious and 
civic life of the town of Rochester. 

The building of the town's meeting-house in 1699 
opened the way for the church organization that had been 



The Early Church and the Precincts 73 

so long delayed. As to the plans for this meeting-house 
(which stood within the limits of the town's burying- 
ground, laid out at the same time) the town records give 
considerable information. It was to be "24 by 26 Ft. 
and 10 ft. between joints, with a gable on each side." It 
was to have "a pulpit and flours and girts for three gal- 
erys, with three seats apew," and a rate of sixty pounds 
was voted to defray its cost, though it was afterwards 
decided to pay for it "by a free-will offering if that will 
amount to 50 pounds." The building committee were 
Samuel Prince, Peter Blackmer (who was also the builder), 
and Mark Haskel, at whose house the plans were drawn. 
He died before the house was completed, and to his widow, 
Mary Haskel, was given the office of sweeping the meet- 7 
ing-house " once in 15 days or as often as shall be occation 
for sweeping of it to keep it Deasent." 

Minister Arnold's long religious efforts now began to 
bear fruit, and October 13, 1703, he wrote in the old 
church book, " It hath pleased our gracious Lord to shine 
in the dark corner of this wilderness, and visit this dark 
spot of ground with the dayspring from on high through 
his tender mercy to settle a church according to the order 
of the gospel." 

Seven Christian men of Rochester, in addition to Mr. 
Arnold, signed the covenant that day, the names of the 
signers being Samuel Arnold, Abraham Holmes, Samuel 
Hammond, Isaac Holmes, Jacob Bumpus, John Benson, 
Thomas Dexter, Anthony Coomes. 

Five years after the church was organized Mr. Arnold 
died, and was succeeded a few months later by Rev. 
Timothy Ruggles. Many years afterwards, when Minister 
Ruggles was asked for some information regarding his 



74 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

predecessor, he wrote of Mr. Arnold that " the neighbor- 
ing ministers who survived him esteemed him as a worthy 
minister and approved him as a good Divine, but not so 
well skilled in church discipline as some others." In 
contemplating this defect, however, it is well to remember 
that skill in church discipline counted for more among 
ministerial qualifications in the eighteenth century than 
it does at present. 

Mr. Arnold left at his death in 1709 a church list of 
thirty -five members as follows: 

Males — Samuel Arnold (unworthy pastor) ; Abraham 
Holmes, Deacon; Samuel Hammond, Isaac Holmes, Jacob 
Bumpus, John Benson, Thomas Dexter, Anthony Coomcs, 
Isaac Spooner, Benjamin Dexter, Samuel Winslow, Sam- 
uel White, Thomas Perry, Ebenezer Spooner, Samuel 
Arnold, Jr., Experience Holmes, John Hammond, — 17. 

Females — Elizabeth Arnold, Mrs. Mary Hammond, 
Mrs. Sarah Arnold, Mary Haskel, Anna Holmes, Alis 
Spooner, Sarah Bumpus, Elizabet Bumpus, Abigal 
Holmes, Lidiah Joy, Mercy Winslow, Mary Whitridge, 
Ruth Perry, Mary Hammond, Sr., Mary Hammond, Jr., 
Elizabeth Arnold, Sarah Dexter, Mehitable Clark, — 18. 

The names on this first church list seem fairly repre- 
sentative of the town territory. The Mattapoisett and 
Wareham names show that persons from the eastern and 
western edges of the town were active supporters of the 
new church, while Abraham and Isaac Holmes, who were 
brothers, lived near Snow's Pond, and represented the 
Sniptuit quarter. 

After Mr. Arnold's death, Rev. Timothy Ruggles of 
Roxbury, a young graduate of Harvard, was called to be 
the town's minister, and was ordained November 22, 1710. 



The Early Church and the Precincts 75 

Mr. Ruggles was not made a proprietor as Mr. Arnold 
had been, but the town gave him a farm of seventy acres, 
with the use of certain other ministry lands, and an annual 
salary which was at one time one hundred pounds, though 
it was often in arrears and subject to adjustments. The 
town also built him a house, — Mr. Ruggles furnishing 
the "glasse and nails," and boarded him at Roger Hascol's 
till the house was done. Capt. Isaac Holmes, John Ham- 
mond, Ensign Edward Winslow, Sergeant Benjamin 
Dexter, Sergeant John Briggs, Peter Blackmer, and Elisha 
Andrews were appointed as the building committee, "to 
set up such a dwelling-house for Mr. Ruggles as he shall 
give dimensions for." This house stood on the old road, 
in the rear of Captain Hathaway's dwelling, that was 
given up in 1785 when the present road to Marion was 
built. The site that the house occupied is still owned by 
descendants of Minister Ruggles. 

The congregation increased rapidly, and in 1714, only 
eleven years after the church was organized, the meeting- 
house was voted too small, Some wished to enlarge the 
building by an addition "at ye backside thereof." But 
after some delays, in 1717 a new meeting-house was built, 
which stood for ninety-four years in the grassy triangle 
opposite the cemetery gate, being used for church purposes 
about forty -three years. In 1906 the church and parish 
at Rochester Center placed a stone in this area to com- 
memorate the two meeting-houses which were built on 
Rochester Common by the votes and the taxes of all the 
citizens of Old Rochester. 

The new meeting-house of 1717 was "40 Ft. by 35 Ft. 
and 20 Ft. between joints." The pews were "al of a 
haith and bult workmanlike," and three seats were built 



76 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

"Nye the pulpit stairs for ancient parsons to sett in." In 
1725 there was a "Lock gott for it." Neither of these 
two first meeting-houses had a chimney or any fire unless 
in foot-stoves. Nor did the parish meeting-house that in 
1760 succeeded the one of 1717 on Rochester Common 
have a fire until the nineteenth century was well begun, 
when a chimney was added and two box stoves were 
introduced. 

The meeting-house of 1717 was not long adequate to 
the needs of the growing town. In 1733 permission was 
given to certain persons to build pews on the beams above 
the galleries, — a sort of third-story arrangement to utilize 
the high roof spaces which belonged to the earliest type 
of New England meeting-houses. One of these lofty 
pew builders was Timothy Ruggles, Jr., at that time a 
young lawyer in the town. 

But events were coming that would relieve the conges- 
tion in the Rochester meeting-house, and change again 
the course of town history. 

In 1733, the people of Mattapoisett complained that 
they were "so remote from the Center as to make their 
Difficulty great in all public Conserns," and asked to be 
set off into a new precinct. The matter was delayed for a 
time, during which an effort was made to have Matta- 
poisett incorporated as a separate town. But this did not 
meet the general wishes of the people, and in 1735 the 
Second Precinct of Rochester was finally set off. 

With this event, Mattapoisett village began to develop 
more distinct lines of local interest. Through the keeping 
of the precinct and church books also its local history 
began to be put into written form. Yet for more than a 
hundred and twenty years longer Mattapoisett still held 



The Early Church and the Precincts 77 

important relations with the other precincts as an integral 
part of the town of Old Rochester. In 1736 the Second 
Church of Rochester was organized in Mattapoisett. 
The interesting history of this old precinct church will be 
recorded in a later chapter. 

With the organization of the Second Precinct, the rest 
of the town became " The First Precinct or Parish." The 
first parish was never incorporated by that name, but 
was always what was left of the town after other parishes 
had been set off. 

With the setting off of Mattapoisett into a separate 
precinct, the history of the town itself also took a new 
line of development. Like all other New England towns, 
Rochester was at first one religious organization in which 
all householders were taxed for church support. The 
incorporation of the Second Precinct was the first of a 
series of events that finally changed the original town 
into five religious organizations having definite territorial 
limits, within which all householders (unless personally 
excused) were subject to taxation for the support of the 
Congregational Church in that parish. The Ministry 
Lands of the town were finally divided up among these 
parishes or precincts. " Minister's Island " at Matta- 
poisett Neck was perhaps a part of one of these old Min- 
istry Lots. 

In 1709, by a vote of the town, those who were "pro- 
fessed Quakers " began to be excused from their ministry 
dues, and in the latter part of the eighteenth century many 
Baptists claimed and received such exemption. But it 
was not until 1836 that the system of church taxation 
became illegal in Massachusetts and the voluntary system 
became universal. 



78 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

The second parish division in Old Rochester took place 
July 6, 1739, when the town of Wareham was incorporated. 
The same year a church was established there, consisting 
of thirty-three members dismissed from the First Church 
of Rochester. 

The Wareham section was not technically a precinct 
of Rochester, but it was sometimes referred to as the 
"Wareham Precinct," and it received finally (though not 
without some controversy) its share of the " Ministry 
Lands." About 1770 the town of Wareham, with Eben- 
ezer Briggs as its agent, successfully upheld in the courts 
the claims of W r areham. After this, Rochester passed a 
vote stating that "The Precinct of Wareham's part is to 
the whole as 1103 is to 5728," and that Wareham was 
therefore entitled to "the Minister's Land lying in their 
said town and in Horseneck," but added, " It is neverthe- 
less to be understood that the above proportions are made 
exclusive of the Friends and Baptists' Societies. We do, 
therefore consider the Sd W T areham part or proportion 
made as liable to contribute their part to the Sd Friends 
& Baptists Societies when the Said Friends and Baptists 
shall regularly apply for the same according to the Tenor 
of the Proprietors' vote." 

The cutting off of the Wareham district brought a 
larger change than the separation of Mattapoisett had 
done, since it divided the people, not only in church 
interests, but in those of the town as well. It took from 
Rochester a large piece of the town territory. The vil- 
lages of Tremont, Tihonet, South W T areham, Wareham 
Center, and part of The Narrows lie in what was once 
Old Rochester. 

The following account of the formation of the Third or 



The Early Church and the Precincts 79 

North Rochester parish is found in an article written by 
Abraham Holmes in 1821, and published in the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Collections, Vol. X, 2d Series: 

* During the administration of Mr. Ruggles an unhappy 
controversy arose between him and Noah Sprague, Esq., 
which terminated in the erection of a poll parish, taking 
in the N. W. part of the town and some who lived in the 
immediate neighborhood of the meetinghouse of the first 
parish, a part of Middleboro and a part of Freetown. 
In this parish the Rev. Tho. West was ordained the 
minister. Mr. West remained their minister until about 
the year 1781, though before this time some of the leading 
members of this church and parish grew disatisfied with 
this doctrine and some of them went off and joined the 
Baptist connexion, and at this time his advanced age, & 
the infirmities incident thereto, induced him to ask a 
dismission, it was granted. 

"The members of this poll parish now found them- 
selves, on account of diminution to be incompetent to 
settle a minister. They negotiated with the first parish 
in the year 1791, and agreed with them for a division line 
between that precinct and these by which they relinquished 
a number that belonged to the poll parish and took in a 
larger number by metes and bounds which had belonged 
to the first parish. They then applied to the Legislature 
and obtained an act of incorporation making a territorial 
parish, taking in a part of the first and second parishes in 
Middleboro and a part of Freetown. More than half of 
the people who live in this parish are of different denom- 
inations of Christians from those who procured the act 
of incorporation." 

After the territorial parish of North Rochester was 



80 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

organized the First Parish gave them (instead of Ministry 
Lands) the sura of seventy pounds, six shillings, sixpence, 
* whether they continue Congregationalists or whether they 
are Baptists or Friends." They did continue Congrega- 
tionalists, and the coming of Rev. Calvin Chaddock in 
1793 did much to strengthen them in their Congregational 
faith. 

From the historical address of Rev. John P. Trow- 
bridge, the present pastor, given in 1903 on the 150th 
anniversary of this church, the following account of the 
church and its early pastors is chiefly compiled : 

The first meeting-house in North Rochester stood about 
a mile westward from the present structure, in the north- 
west angle of the town. Its frame was raised November 
17, 1748, with the sturdy exertion of many men, aided 
by some West India rum as the custom of the times 
demanded. It was a poor structure, built hastily because 
winter was at hand and a place of shelter for the ark of the 
Lord was sorely needed. Yet it was used for a place of 
worship a little more than forty years when its timbers 
were given to the man who would tear them down and 
carry them away, which lot fell to Mr. Abner Wood and 
his son Zenas. 

In 1791 a second meeting-house was built on the site 
where a third meeting-house (the present structure) was 
erected in 1841. At the time of the building of the second 
meeting-house part of the parish wished it to stand on 
the lot formerly owned by Luke Perkins, near the Still- 
water Furnace, and timber was actually drawn there for 
the purpose. But others were not pleased with this ar- 
rangement and quietly carried the timber down to the 
present church lot. 



The Early Church and the Precincts 81 

The church in North Rochester was organized in 1753, 
its first pastor being Rev. Thomas West, who was born at 
the Vineyard in 1708. He was a graduate of Harvard, 
and labored for some years at the Vineyard as a colleague 
Missionary before coming to Rochester. He was a good 
clerical scholar, and fitted several young men for the 
ministry. He is also described as having "apostolical 
simplicity of manner," and being " devoted to the proph- 
ecies." Two of the sons of Minister West attained dis- 
tinction in the ministry, one of them, Rev. Samuel West, 
having been the pastor of the Hollis Street Church, Bos- 
ton. Rev. Thomas West died in 1790, and was buried 
in one of the old graveyards of North Rochester, where 
his epitaph, blurred and broken, reads: 

"Weep ye, nay friends, for West is gone, 
His glass of time doth cease to run, 
His active tongue and virtuous heart 
Have ceased to act. They've done their part. 
Although he's gone he yet does live, 
His soul immortal does survive. 
He's now disrobed of earthly clay, 
And shines in one eternal day." 

The second minister of North Rochester Precinct, 
1791-3, was Rev. David Gurney, of whom the only men- 
tion in the church record is found in the following 
minute : 

"Marcus Morton and Polly, son and daughter of 
Nathaniel and Polly Morton, were baptized Sept. 11, 
1791, by Rev. David Gurney." The chief interest in this 
record, however, lies in the fact that the said Marcus 
Morton, who was born in the Middleboro part of this 
precinct, when grown to manhood became the Governor 



82 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

of Massachusetts, gaining his election by a majority of 
one vote. 

The third pastor of the North Rochester church was 
Rev. Calvin Chaddock, who had studied theology with 
Dr. Emmons of Franklin, then at the height of his fame. 
The day of Mr. Chaddock's ordination, October 10, 1795, 
was an important one in the history of North Rochester. 
Dr. Emmons preached the ordination sermon, and in the 
words of one who was present, "The Solemnities of the 
day were performed." Before the service, the church 
met at the house of Mr. Zebulon Haskell (who lived by 
Great Quitticus Pond, on the site afterwards known as 
" The Roberts Place,") and adopted a new confession of 
faith which was " remarkable for its catholicity of spirit 
and brevity of statement, considering the habits of thought 
of that age." 

Mr. Chaddock's pastorate was notable also for an 
"Academy" which he established at North Rochester, 
the first within the limits of the town territory. It did 
good work for a few years and drew some pupils from a 
distance, but came to an end at the close of Mr. Chad- 
dock's pastorate in 1805. 

After this the North Rochester church went through a 
period of irregular preaching with two short pastorates 
of Rev. Ichabod Plaisted and Rev. William Utley, — 
until the coming of Rev. Isaac Briggs, whose long term of 
important service lasted from 1835 to 1857, during which 
the present house of worship was built, largely by Mr. 
Briggs's efforts in obtaining the funds. As this chapter 
deals with the precincts of Old Rochester, the shorter 
pastorates that have occurred since 1857 are not here 
followed. 



The Early Church and the Precincts 83 

After the withdrawal of the Mattapoisett, Wareham, 
and North Rochester members, the people of Rochester 
Center and Sippican remained together for many years as 
the First Precinct and First Church of Rochester. Mr. 
Ruggles continued to be the minister until 1768, when he 
died after a pastorate of fifty-eight years (his only pas- 
torate), during which 303 members were added to the 
church. 

June 2, 1757, there was a solemn service in the meeting- 
house called the " Renewal of the Covenant/' when Mr. 
Ruggles was assisted by the ministers of the other pre- 
cincts, and " 16 females and 28 males attended the So- 
lemnity." 

Although Mr. Ruggles was a man of peace, his last 
years were disquieted by a lawsuit, to which he was a 
party at the solicitation of his people, for the recovering 
of certain Ministry lands near the church which other 
persons were " improving," and which it was felt must be 
recovered "during the lifetime of our present minister." 
The land does not seem to have been recovered, but sev- 
eral generations later it was given back to the parish by 
the persons then holding it, and it is known to-day as 
u The Ministry Lot," lying just north of the church to the 
west of the North Rochester road. 

On a large slate gravestone in the front of Rochester 
Cemetery one may read : 

" In memory of ye Rev'd Timothy Ruggles, pastor of 
ye church in Rochester, who was an able Divine and a 
Faithful Minister. Having a peculiar talent at composing 
Differences and healing Divisions in Churches, he was 
much imployed in Ecclesiastical Councils and having 
spent his Days and his strength in the work of his Lord 



84 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

and Master finished his Course with Joy and departed 
this Life October ye 26, 1768, in the 84th year of his age 
and the 58th of his Ministry." 

Minister Ruggles's successor in the First Church of 
Rochester was Rev. Jonathan Moore, ordained in 1768. 
He was a graduate of Harvard, and had been librarian of 
that college. Previous to his ordination also, he supplied 
for some months the pulpit of Brattle Street Church, Bos- 
ton, during the illness of Dr. Cooper, who attended his 
ordination at Rochester. His pastorate included the 
trying Revolutionary period, and on the alarm of Lexing- 
ton he joined one of the Rochester Companies as its chap- 
lain. It is said also that " he shouldered his musket and 
marched to Marshfield and also to Wareham during the 
Revolution." 

The " half-way Covenant," adopted in many New 
England churches in the eighteenth century 7 , began to 
influence Rochester church during the latter part of 
Mr. Ruggles's pastorate and was later supported by 
Mr. Moore. Perhaps this, as well as the religious 
decline under the infidel influence of France that was 
everywhere prevalent after the Revolution, had something 
to do with the disturbances that entered the First Church 
of Rochester during the last years of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, although the controversy seems to have been largely 
personal in its nature. 

Mr. Moore was dismissed in 1792, but refused to recog- 
nize such dismissal, and for a while rival services were 
held in the meeting-house and in Mr. Moore's own dwell- 
ing. His name was taken from the roll of the church as 
well, but before his death in 1814 he was received back 
into the full communion of the church. 



The Early Church and the Precincts 85 

The anonymous writer of 1815, previously quoted, 
says of Mr. Moore : 

" He was a man of constitutional fearlessness of heart. 
The face of men in any garb had no terrors for him. — 
The latter days of Mr. Moore were embittered by dis- 
putes and lawsuits with his parish, finally issuing in his 
dismission. — He continued to preach to a part of the 
society more than two years in his dwelling-house, but in 
his closing years, renewed his communion with the church 
of which he had formerly been pastor. Mutual forgive- 
ness of injuries is a Christian virtue strictly enjoined on all; 
in a peculiar manner those who make profession of the 
Christian name. It is proper to state that in 1794 when 
Mr. M. sued for arrears in salary, the Supreme Judicial 
Court gave the cause in his favour but the jury returned a 
verdict otherwise." 

It seems probable that Mr. Moore had the technical 
rights of the case in his controversy with his church. 
Nevertheless, he was not, like Minister Ruggles, " skilled 
in the composing of differences." And the frictions of 
this period had something to do with the setting off of the 
Fourth Parish of Rochester in 1798. 

Yet in the words of Rev. H. L. Brickett, "Mr. Moore 
was an able fearless and scholarly man." During the 
first part of his pastorate he did good service for the 
church in Rochester and his well-written records and 
other writings have real historic value. He is buried in 
Rochester Cemetery, and beside him lies Susanna, the 
wife of his youth. On another stone near by, one may 
read " In memory of Capt. Jonathan Moore, son of 
Rev. Jonathan Moore and Susanna his wife. He was 
master of the ship Newport of Boston and on his pas- 



86 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

sage to London in Sept. of 1800 the ship foundered in 
a storm, when he with all the people on board, being 
upwards of 20, perished in the 30th year of his age. 

God does the Raging Sea controul 
'Tis He that rules the boisterous Deep, 
He makes the Sleeping Billows roll, 
He makes the rolling Billows sleep." 

The second wife of Minister Moore was Anna, the 
daughter of Polypus Hammond of Mattapoisett, and 
some of the descendants of this second marriage are now 
there living. 

About 1795 the people of Sippican, many of whom 
were opposed to Mr. Moore, began to hold preaching 
services in that part of the town. In 1798 the Fourth 
Precinct of Rochester was set off, and in 1791 a meeting- 
house (now the Luce store) was built in the lower village. 
One of the ministers who came to Sippican to preach 
during this period was Rev. Oliver Cobb, who proved to 
be a young man of promise and of power. The people 
of Sippican, however, had no desire to separate from the 
First Church, nor was either precinct desirous to assume 
the full support of a minister at that time. In 1799 the 
First Church of Rochester, made up of members of both 
precincts, extended a call to Mr. Cobb to be their pastor, 
the First Precinct agreeing that the pastor " should preach 
in the Fourth Precinct from a fourth to one half of the 
time." Practically, services were held alternately in the 
two meeting-houses during Mr. Cobb's pastorate. The 
call was accepted and Mr. Cobb was ordained and took 
up his residence on the road between the two meeting- 
houses, though within the limits of the Fourth Pre- 
cinct. 



The Early Church and the Precincts 87 

The account of the forming of the Fourth Precinct is 
more fully given by Mr. Holmes in 1821, as follows: 

" In the first parish a great degree of unanimity pre- 
vailed until the year 1788, when an unhappy difficulty 
arose between the Rev. Mr. Moore the minister, and 
Major Earl Clapp a leading man in the church and parish. 
This difficulty though personal in its Commencement, 
very soon became general, and a more spirited controversy 
seldom if ever was known. This terminated in the dis- 
missal of Mr. Moore. In Feb. 1799 the Rev. Oliver 
Cobb was settled as the minister of that parish and of 
another parish in said town the origin of which will be 
narrated. — 

" In the year 1798 a number of the inhabitants of the 
S.E. part of the 1st parish living remote from the place of 
publick worship, having built a meeting-house petitioned 
the Legislature to be incorporated into a distinct parish, 
— the first parish accompanying said petition with a 
certificate that they had no objection to the prayer of said 
petition. They were accordingly incorporated. These 
petitioners had no idea of settling a minister by them- 
selves but of joining with the first parish in settling one 
who should preach alternately in each meetinghouse. 
They accordingly joined in settling Mr. Cobb, as before 
mentioned, — but they have a church (i.e. a meeting- 
house) separately in said parish, and a considerable part 
of both parishes can attend each meetinghouse, the 
meetinghouses being only 4 miles distant from each 
other." 

The following description of Rev. Oliver Cobb as well 
as that of Rev. Leander Cobb, Dr. Cobb's son and suc- 
cessor in the church at Sippican, is taken from an anni- 



88 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

versary sermon preached by Rev. H. L. Brickett of Marion 
in 1903: 

" Rev. Oliver Cobb at the time of his coming to Rochester 
was 29 years of age, married, well fitted for the ministry 
and ready for service. In appearance he was slim, with 
a smooth face, medium height, and eyes as blue as the 
waters in Sippican Bay. He was a graduate of Brown 
University, from which he also received the degree of D.D. 
in 1834. 

" Two churches, Rehoboth and Rochester, desired his 
services and he asked the advice of an Indian as to which 
he should accept. The Indian, Yankee-like, replied with 
a question, 'What are you going to preach for?' and 
added, ' If you are going to preach for money go where 
the most money is; if you are going to preach for souls go 
where the most devil is.' And he came to Rochester. 

"In Mr. Cobb's family was a colored girl named 
Dinah, who was fond of Mr. Cobb and could not bear 
to hear him criticised. Once when some one had found 
fault with him in her hearing she burst forth, 'Anybody 
that talks about Dr. Cobb talks about a very wicked thing.' 
When Dr. Cobb heard of this he laughed and said, ' Dinah 
never spoke truer words.' " 

With Mr. Cobb's coming to the First Church of Roches- 
ter, it entered on a period of much harmony and pros- 
perity. During this ministry there were three revivals 
of marked power, in 1807 and 1808, in 1816 and in 1819, 
and many new members came into the church in both 
villages. 

In 1709 sacramental vessels were bought by the First 
Church for the " Harbour Meetinghouse." James Clark 
and Timothy Hiller were appointed deacons in that pre- 



The Early Church and the Precincts 89 

cinct and thereafter the Communion Services were held 
alternately in the two villages. Thus by gradual steps 
there came to be virtually two fully equipped churches 
in the two parishes, though having the services of one 
minister in common. 

It was the older and larger precinct that first grew tired 
of this arrangement and desired the entire service of a 
pastor. In 1827 Rev. Jonathan Bigelow was called to 
be colleague pastor with Mr. Cobb. The council called 
to install Mr. Bigelow being asked the question: "Is it 
expedient that this church be divided?" replied that "It 
is expedient." So the church roll of members was di- 
vided, eighty-three members being assigned to the church 
in the First Precinct, and fifty-seven to the church in the 
Fourth Precinct, and Mr. Bigelow was installed as pastor 
in the First Precinct. Both churches were already fully 
equipped with officers, and the only change that occurred 
at this date was that the church at Rochester Center had 
a new pastor and both congregations now had services 
each Sabbath instead of on alternate Sabbaths. 

Some discussion arose as to the names of the two 
churches, and some spasmodic and inconsistent attempts 
were made to call the two churches the Central and South 
Churches of Rochester, until the incorporation of Marion 
gave a natural distinction, as, the Congregational churches 
of Rochester and of Marion. 

But in 1861 the following minute was placed on record 
by the church of the old First Precinct: 

" Resolved : — that this church was originally incor- 
porated as the First Congregational Church of Rochester 
— and that this is our only legal name. 

" Resolved : — that the title of the Central Church of 



90 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Rochester by which we have sometimes allowed ourselves 
to be designated was only temporarily endured in con- 
sideration of the peculiar feelings of a former and beloved 
pastor now gone to his rest." 

When the church of the First Precinct moved into its 
new house of worship in 1837, Dr. Oliver Cobb preached 
the last sermon in the old meeting-house where he had 
ministered for twenty-eight years as pastor, and the 
building was then taken down. 

It seems entirely natural that Dr. Cobb, whose historic 
mind had done much to preserve and record the old church 
history of Rochester, ministering as he did to the day of 
his death in the same locality where he began his preach- 
ing and where his home was located, remembering also 
that within this precinct was the spot where the early 
settlers of the town first set up their altars of worship, 
should have clung to the old church name that for a 
whole generation had been applied to the church over 
which he ministered. 

After all, the truest view of these church relations seems 
to be that the old First Church of Rochester, organized 
in 1703 on Rochester Green, has found its natural con- 
tinuance in five ancient sister churches occupying the 
five territorial divisions that from the first were the recog- 
nized "quarters" of the Old Rochester territory. 

Between the years 1837 and 1845 all five of these Con- 
gregational churches thus formed out* of the old First 
Church of Rochester had new houses of worship of similar 
architecture, for which Solomon K. Eaton of Mattapoisett 
was architect and builder. The one at Wareham was 
burned in 1904, and has been replaced by a building of 
different architectural style. The other four of these 




1r. • = 

r Z 'J 

H = 






The Early Church and the Precincts 91 

meeting-houses are still in use. They all belong to what 
has been called the Third or Christopher Wren style of 
New England church architecture, though modified by 
the fact that all have square belfries instead of the usual 
pointed spire. 

After 1827, when the churches in the First and Fourth 
Precincts had without reorganization gone on their sep- 
arate ways, Rev. Oliver Cobb continued with the church 
at Sippican as its pastor until his death in 1849. 

In 1839 Rev. Leander Cobb became his father's col- 
league and later his successor. "He was a man of in- 
tellectual attainment and spiritual power, a graduate of 
Brown and of Andover, a gifted sermonizer and faithful 
pastor." Soon after his coming the new house of worship 
was begun, and its dedication and Mr. Cobb's installation 
occurred the same day, December 1, 1841. Rev. Leander 
Cobb was still the pastor of this parish when the Fourth 
Precinct of Old Rochester became the new town of 
Marion. 

Meanwhile, in the old First Precinct the new pastor, 
Rev. Jonathan Bigelow, installed in 1827, also was doing 
a noble work for the church and parish. He served for 
many years on the School Committee of the town, and 
was perhaps the most influential factor in the establish- 
ment of Rochester Academy (opened in 1839), which was 
for a generation a most potent educational force in the 
town. He also had much to do with the building opera- 
tions that produced within a few years, the church, acad- 
emy, and parsonage at Rochester Center. Mr. Bigelow 
was a man of intellectual power and held in a marked 
degree the affection and respect of his people. He was 
dismissed in 1849 and was succeeded by the Rev. Eli 



92 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Harrington, who was pastor in the old First Precinct at 
the time of the division of the towns. 

But the sketch here given of the old precincts of Roches- 
ter would be very incomplete unless mention is made of 
other church organizations that grew up in the various 
parishes during the century and three quarters that com- 
prised the old town history. 

The first form of faith other than that of the legal 
parishes to find entrance into Rochester was that of the 
"Friends or Quakers." Meetings for worship among the 
Friends were begun in Rochester as early as 1702. In 
1707 a preparative monthly meeting of Friends was 
started, this being subordinate to the regular monthly 
meeting at Apponegansett or Dartmouth. A meeting- 
house was built which stood for many years close beside 
the pound in North Marion. The burying-ground 
opposite the Methodist Church in the same vicinity is 
still known as the old Quaker burying-ground. About 
1740 the relations of this preparative monthly meeting 
were transferred to the monthly meeting at Sandwich. 

In 1790 the rates of church taxes in Rochester by a 
vote of the towns were remitted to those "of contrery 
judgment who are professed Quakers." The chief 
minister or public speaker of this old Friends' Society 
was Nicholas Davis, who was a man of ability and in- 
fluence. After 1740 his membership was in the Sandwich 
monthly meeting. He died in 1755 while on a journey in 
New York State. 

The writer of 1815 previously quoted says of his own 
era, "The Friends of whom there has ever been some in 
the place, have a meetinghouse not far from the shore. 
There may be fifteen families now in the town." 



The Early Church and the Precincts 93 

Regarding the conditions of the Friends in Rochester 
in 1821, Mr. Holmes writes: 

" In the N. W'ly part of the town are a number of the 
denomination of Quakers and attend religious worship 
in the northerly part of Fair Haven. About 2 miles S. 
easterly from the center of the town stands an Ancient 
Friends Meetinghouse [near the Pound, in North Marion]; 
but the society has for a great number of years been gradu- 
ally decreasing, and about 5 yrs since their publick speaker 
died at an advanced age, and it was thought the society 
would become extinct; but about that time a young 
gentleman who had recently assumed a religious charac- 
ter embraced their religious sentiments, altered his dialect 
and dress accordingly; resigned his commissions as a 
justice of the peace and a captain of the militia, joined 
their society and became a publick speaker. This event 
has had a considerable effect on the Society. If it has not 
increased their numbers, it has called the lukewarm into 
activity, has brought to the meeting occasionally many 
of the leading people of that denomination from New 
Bedford and Fairhaven and has brought to attend meeting 
some who before that were contented with their private 
devotions at home and will doubtless be the means of 
perpetuating the Society." 

The society was perpetuated, and now holds meetings 
in the white meeting-house in Mattapoisett on the road 
between Mattapoisett village and Marion. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Baptist 
faith began to spread rapidly in the southeast part of New 
England, largely through the preaching of Elder Backus 
of Titicut, who became the historian of the Baptist 
churches. According to Mr. Backus, a Baptist church 



94 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

was established in Rochester in 1793. But the organiza- 
tion referred to seems to be the one that now worships in 
Long Plain, which had a large Rochester membership in 
its earlier years. 

The only Baptist society now within the limits of Old 
Rochester is in Mattapoisett, at first as a branch of the 
church at Long Plain. After a time the members be- 
came divided in opinion, and various attempts were 
made to start a Freewill Baptist Church, or some other 
kind of Baptist organization — but with only temporary 
effect. The church was reorganized several years ago 
as a "Church of the Christian Connection." Another 
"Christian Church" was started about the middle of the 
nineteenth century near Cushman's store in Rochester. 
But after a few years this was disbanded. 

In the article of 1821, Mr. Holmes writes: 

"A very considerable part of the inhabitants of this 
town are Baptists or Quakers, but Catholicism so far 
prevails that no considerable inconvenience arises there- 
from. In the election of any kind of officer, no attention 
is paid to the particular denomination of Christian to 
which the candidate belongs. An incorporated Baptist 
Society is in the S. W. part of the town who have a meeting- 
house. And a number more in the N.W. part of the town 
are incorporated with a Baptist Society in the northerly 
part of Fair-Haven. Most of the people of the north- 
easterly part of the town belong to a Baptist Society in 
Middleboro, and in the S. E'ly part of the town a number 
of Baptists have associated together." 

About 1841-3 an Adventist movement, known as the 
"Miller Excitement," spread through New England, and 
had considerable influence in some parts of Rochester, 



The Early Church and the Precincts 95 

especially among the Baptists, and a church was formed 
at Mattapoisett. 

During the first half of the nineteenth century two 
Universalist churches were organized, in Sippican Lower 
Village and in Mattapoisett. 

In 1821 Mr. Holmes writes: 

"In the Second Parish some of the Congregational 
order who had a degree of dislike to their minister's 
preaching joined with a number of the Baptist denomina- 
tion and a few Universalians and built the present year a 
meetinghouse, but a small distance from the parish meet- 
inghouse. This house is not claimed by any particular 
denomination, but is open to all without exception." 

In 1828 the Universalist Church in Sippican was or- 
ganized. In 1838 the society in Mattapoisett built a new 
meeting-house at the corner of Church and Barstow 
streets. Through much of the history of these two 
churches the same minister has supplied both pulpits. 

Some time before 1830 Methodism began to find its 
way into Rochester. A Protestant Methodist society was 
formed in North Rochester and built a meeting-house 
near Sniptuit Pond. Philip Crandon, the pastor of this 
church, was for some years one of the School Committee 
of Rochester. During the years of rotation of the town 
meetings one town meeting was held in this old meeting- 
house. The building was afterwards converted into 
Allen's store. 

Another old Protestant Methodist society was formed 
in Sippican, and worshiped for some years in the old 
disused building on the woodland road that runs between 
Plymouth road and Wareham road. The society went 
down many years ago, and has been superseded by 



96 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

the present Methodist Episcopal Church at North 
Marion. 

In 1825 a Union meeting-house was built at about the 
geographical center of the present town of Rochester, on 
a lot given by Joseph Purrington. It was dedicated in 
the fall of 1825, and services began to be held there, Elder 
Pliny Brett u reading the sermon." 

The society has been several times reorganized, being 
once a Methodist society for some years, but later made a 
Congregational society. The first building was burned 
and another built on the same site. Preaching is now 
held at this meeting-house, being supplied by neighboring 
pastors. 

In East Rochester a Methodist church was established 
near the middle of the nineteenth century, but it has since 
been reorganized as a Congregational church. There 
are no other than Congregational churches in the territory 
of the present town of Rochester. 

Within a few years two Episcopal chapels have been 
built within the Old Rochester limits, St. Gabriel's Chapel 
in Marion, and St. Philip's Chapel in Mattapoisett. 
Both are supported mainly by the summer residents, and 
hold services only in summer. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

rpHE year 1700 is recognized in the Rochester Records 
x as marking an epoch in the town history. "The 
Center" was now established; the meeting-house had 
been built. The general layout of the town was in a 
good degree determined. It remained for the town to 
develop its entire territory in accordance with the deci- 
sions that had been made. 

During the first decade of the eighteenth century the 
boundaries of the town were again examined and agreed 
upon. The road system was more definitely developed. 
The church was organized, plans for schools were entered 
upon, and some new industries were undertaken. 

The ecclesiastical history that began with the founding 
of the First Church in 1703 has already been told. The 
other lines of town development during the period when 
Rochester was under the Province Government form the 
subject of the present chapter. 

In 1695 the bounds with Middleboro were laid out. 
In 1698 the town settled anew its boundaries with Ply- 
mouth; in 1701 with Dartmouth; and in 1702 the bounds 
on the north were still further fixed with "the tomsons of 
Middleberry" and others. An important bound and 
landmark through all the town history has been Peak 
Rock, which stands on the Long Plain road, and bears 



98 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

the date 1664, the year when Dartmouth was incorpo- 
rated. It became the corner of three towns, Dartmouth, 
Freetown, and Rochester, also of Plymouth and Bristol 
counties. By a change of boundary line, however, it is 
no longer a corner of Freetown. 

One of the most important tasks of the settlers was to 
open roads and build bridges, which were often corduroy 
roads of pine logs laid over swampy tracts. 

Several ancient Indian paths formed the beginning of 
the road system. One of these was the u Old Path " from 
Plymouth, which was for generations a part of the stage 
road from Plymouth to Dartmouth. 

Intersecting the * Old Path," a little northeast of Mary's 
Pond, was a long and ancient pathway leading from Sand- 
wich to Dartmouth, passing through Rochester Center in 
front of the burying-ground. It was known in the early 
town history as the " Country Road," and very many of 
the early roads were laid out as beginning at the " Country 
Road." In Wareham this road was also called "Sand- 
wich Path," and in Rochester, the " Rhode Island Path" ; 
the " Rhode Island Path " being also at a later date a part 
of the stage route between Plymouth and New Bedford. 

There were other Rhode Island paths leading from 
Plymouth besides the one through Rochester. Weston's 
History of Middleboro speaks of a " Rhode Island Path " 
through Middleboro and Assonet. In Massachusetts His- 
torical Collections [1815] we read; "There are two roads 
leading from Plymouth to New Bedford, the first thirty- 
two miles, by Rochester passing much woods, with but 
a few scattered settlements, is yet a pleasant route, ex- 
cept that cross roads in obscure situations may mislead 
an entire stranger. The second, thirty-six miles by 



The Eighteenth Century 99 

Middleboro, is a more open and obvious route, with 
continued settlements. These roads diverge about two 
miles from Plymouth on the summit of 'Sparrow's Hill,' 
the first being the left hand." Each of the old roads 
from Plymouth to New Bedford seems to have been 
constructed on an ancient Indian "Rhode Island Path." 
Another old Indian trail came down from Middleboro, 
passing the site of the Union meeting-house. Its con- 
tinuation down the west shore of Sippican was called the 
"Old Bay Path." There was another Old Middleboro 
Path from the Middleboro Ponds into Mattapoisett, and 
an ancient pathway in Mattapoisett was also sometimes 
called the "Bay Path." There was another cross-road 
or trail connecting the Sandwich Path with Dartmouth, 
but lying nearer to the sea than the "Country Road." 
It may have been over this path that Captain Church 
traveled on his way westward to meet Queen Awashonks. 
Such Indian trails or paths were definite but narrow, 
and for foot passengers only. Later, they became for the 
colonists bridle-paths, and on many of them the towns 
afterwards laid out their wagon roads. 

In 1694 several important roads were built in Rochester. 
In this year a road was definitely built on the " Old Path " 
beginning at " Middleberry bounds," and following the 
"Old Path till it came to Boxberry Swamp." In 1739, 
when Wareham was incorporated, its boundary was to be 
"Sippican River, as far as Mendell's Bridge, and thence 
as ye Rhode now Lieth to Plymouth till it meets with the 
Middleborough line." This ancient road that "lieth to 
Plymouth" is still the boundary between Rochester and 
Wareham, so that the village which has grown up on the 
two sides of the road is a little uncertain as to whether it 

LOFC. 



100 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

belongs to East Rochester or West Wareham, and in 
common parlance it is usually "Pierceville." 

Another long and important road laid out in 1694 
followed perhaps in general the last of the Indian paths 
that have been referred to. It is described as beginning 
on the west side of Mattapoisett River, and after crossing 
the river and going near Moses Barlow's house, it con- 
tinued to the long bridge and Joseph Benson's " along the 
road that lieth to Aaron Barlow's" and then on to the 
" Sipycan road near John Mendell's," " which is the ex- 
tent of our Doings." 

After the opening of the eighteenth century, a new 
activity in road-building manifested itself. It is impos- 
sible to give an accurate account of the roads as they were 
successively laid out. The long descriptions, dealing 
largely with rocks and marked " Oak Trees," would be 
unintelligible to modern readers. In Town Book No. 
10, however (in accordance with a vote of the town in 
1824), Abraham Holmes, who was then town clerk, 
compiled from the older town records an index and 
abridgment of some of the early town affairs, including 
a condensed description of the laying out of roads in 
Rochester after 1700. 

From Mr. Holmes's abridgment of the original road 
records the following still more condensed description 
has in the main been compiled, and though too brief to 
be an exact description of the roads, it may yet give some 
general impression of the development of the highway 
system, and also show something of the location of the 
homes of the early settlers. 

After the year 1700, the town of Rochester laid out 
roads as follows: 



The Eighteenth Century 101 

1704. Towards the Mill {i.e., the Sippican Mill Dam) 
touching John White's land and an old bridge, 
Anthony Coomb's land, and so to Kenelm Wins- 
low's land. 

1704. From the Country Road by Joshua Spooner's and 
west end of Kenelm Winslow's land, west to 
Arnold's and on to Whitridge's land. 

1705-6. A very long highway, beginning east side of 
the Ministry Land, "where the Country Road 
crosses it," "Nye the meetinghouse," crossing 
Joseph Dotey's land, and the bridge near James 
Stewart's house, and afterwards dividing into 
two roads, towards Charles's Neck and Matta- 
poisett. (The Dexter and Parlow roads and the 
disused woods roads beyond.) 

1716. From Common Landing, near Samuel Hammond's 
Island to Thomas Clarke's land. 

1718. Near George Danforth, by Benjamin Dexter's. 

1718. Into Crawmesit Neck. 

1718. Beginning at Country Road, on top of a hill near 
Isaac Bumpus' field. 

1720. Into Great Neck. 

1727. (Altered) the road to Cornelius Clarke's Dwelling 
House. 

1729. Joshua Coggeshall's to Thomas Clark's land, near 
Quitticus Ponds. 

1734. Quaker Meeting-house to Occoot. 

1737. Road by Joshua Cowing's altered. 

1739. Occoot to Ephraim Dexter's. 

1739. Mattapoisett meeting-house to Josiah Dexter's. 

1746. Peaked Rock by John Shearman's, to Quitticus 
Brook. 



102 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

1746. From aforesaid road (by Peaked Rock) by Deacon 

Elislia Freeman, Peter Crapo, Isaac Freeman, 
and William Clark. 

1747. From Isaac Freeman's by James Lord's to east 

corner of Thomas Whitridge's land. 
1750. From the road between Peaked Rock and Quit- 
ticus brook to Freetown line. 

1753. John Hammond's to Dartmouth line. 

1754. From Elisha Freeman's Corner eastward. 

1756. From Seth Snow's into Pine Island. 

1757. From John Stetson's to Mattapoisett, through 

lands of John Steward, William Rotch, and 

Charles Stetson, and others. 
1762. From Winslow's and Rider's gristmill, by Ezra 

Clarke's. 
1772. Sniptuit Neck near Nathaniel Clark's. 
1772. Road by the Haunted House (altered). 

1774. Middleboro line to Seth Randall's. 

1775. Dartmouth line to Isaac Pope's. 
1778. Dartmouth line to John Hammett's. 

1780. Middleboro line by Stillwater Mills. 

1781. From Samuel Rider's across Horse Neck to Aaron 

Sturtevant's. 
1785. Enoch Hammond's to Mattapoisett Neck. 

1785. From Mr. Moore's Meeting-house, by Elisha 

Barrows's, over Muddy Brook, towards the 
Friends' Meeting-house, giving up two roads 
already trod, so as to maintain but one bridge 
(present road from the Center towards Marion). 

1786. Road by Mr. Moore's. 

1787. From Deacon Whitridge's to the schoolhouse 

(altered). 



The Eighteenth Century 103 

1787. Over Rock Bridge by Capt. Joshua Snow's. 

1792. Hannah Dotey's to Seth Randall's. 

1793. Near John Ellis's. 

1793. By Samuel Rider's house. 

1799. Highway districts established. 

1801. Old Landing to Sippican Wharf. 

1801. From Silas Handy's to the wharf. 

1805. Over Wolf Island. 

1806. At Horse Neck by Moses Mendell's. 

1807. From John Crapo's to Nicholas Davis's (widened). 

1807. Peaked Rock to Middleboro altered. 

1808. Into Mattapoisett Neck from Nathaniel Ham- 

mond's. 

1810. Near Philip Dexter's. 

1810. Into Mattapoisett Neck west of Isaac Barrow's 

land. 

1811. At the Old Landing. 

1815. First vote to raise money to clean away snow and 
mend bridges caused by freshets. 

1818. Across Captain Mitchell's land. 

1819. By Nicholas Snow's (altered). 

1819. From Captain Mitchell's to Nathan Sears, Jr. 

1819. At Mattapoisett by Benjamin Barstow's. 

1824. From Schoolhouse near A. Mantor's. 

1824. At the Old Landing. 

1824. Three roads near Rider's Mill. 

1825. At Wharf village eastward. 

1825. At Horse Neck by Moses Mendell's. 

1825. Near Alden Mantor's discontinued. 

1827. Streets at Mattapoisett village. 

1832. At Mattapoisett village. 

1832. On Mattapoisett Neck. 



104 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

1832. From Eben Holmes's to Wharf village. 
1832. Into Charles's Neck by John Clark's. 

With the opening of the eighteenth century the indus- 
tries of the town received new attention. 

In 1700 the town voted: 

"That Ensign Isaac Holmes repair to Sniptuit Brook 
and repaire the weare and take the allowance which is to 
be taken, and he is also appointed to divide the fish 5000 
to each family taking those that live nearest the weare 
first and to have 6d for each thousand so delivered or a 
peck of corn next fall besides one shilling to be paid down 
when the fish are delivered." 

The herring fishery has always been an important 
source of food in Rochester as well as of income to the 
town treasury. In 1821 we are told that the income of 
the herring fishery was about $400 annually. The so- 
called herrings of the New England coasts are, strictly 
speaking, "alewives." The true herring is an ocean fish 
of somewhat mysterious habits that swims in vast shoals, 
and is one of the most important kinds of food fish of the 
world. The alewives much resemble the true herring, 
but by careful writers in the early days they were always 
carefully distinguished from the herring to which the 
colonists had been accustomed on European shores. In 
local parlance, however, the name, "alewive" was long 
ago dropped for " herring." At the beginning of Roches- 
ter history herrings (or alewives) were seined in the 
streams of Wareham, and on the setting off of Wareham 
a weir was reserved for Rochester on the Weweantit 
River. 

The appointment of Isaac Holmes to the charge of the 



The Eighteenth Century 105 

Sniptuit weare shows that herrings also came abundantly 
into Sniptuit pond. They came in through the Taunton 
River, however, and the weir was on the stream now known 
as North Rochester Brook. An elevation called "Old 
Weir Hill " is on the Gerrish farm near by, and here may 
be seen to-day traces of the dwelling once occupied by 
Experience Holmes, who was a nephew of Isaac Holmes, 
the first herring inspector of Rochester. 

In 1755 an artificial channel from Mattapoisett River 
led to the yearly passage of vast shoals of herrings into 
Sniptuit by this route, and since then the Mattapoisett 
River has been especially the herring river. On this river 
there are now three weirs, two in Rochester and one in 
Mattapoisett. At the Mattapoisett weir certain mills are 
also located that were owned by Old Rochester before 
the town division and are known as "town mills." Al- 
though this mill privilege is not at present highly improved, 
the mills as well as the fishery are still owned by the three 
towns in common, and are under the care of the herring 
inspectors. 

February 6, 1699-1700, "Libertie" was given to any of 
" the proprietors to sett up a mill for Iron Works — if 
more than eight purchasers do appear to carry on and 
build sd mill," but it was to be in "Some sutable place 
where it may be secure from hurting people by cuting 
choyse timber." No definite record is given as to any 
mill being * set up," but at an early date there was an iron 
mill at Leonard's Pond (or Sippican Mills). Also a blast 
furnace was in early operation at Stillwater Mills in North 
Rochester. 

The iron works at Sippican Mills seem to have been 
quite extensive, for in 1821 we are told there were a forge, 



106 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

a trip hammer shop and a foundry u all on the Sippican 
River." 

The largest deposit of iron ore was in Lake Quitticus. 
It was taken from the lake with an instrument resembling 
tongs, and the industry was attended with sonic danger. 
In Middleboro several instances of drowning are recorded 
in getting ore from " Assawampsett Pond." There was 
also some ore in Sniptuit Pond, and further south along 
the streams. In a brook which flows from u the iron 
country " through Rochester Center, one may to-day find 
stones showing traces of iron. 

In the iron works at Leonard's Pond (or Sippican 
Mills) there was a trip-hammer by which the iron was 
converted into "blooms" or masses of iron of oblong 
shape. These iron " blooms " were then sent to Ware- 
ham, where they were rolled out into bars and then cut 
into small slits to be hammered later into the form of nails. 

Of the iron works in North Rochester, Mr. Holmes says : 
" In the north of the town is a furnace called ' Stillwater 
Furnace,' on account of the sluggishness of the stream. 
It stands on Black River, which rises in Middleboro, and 
only the S. E. end of it is in Rochester. Its opera- 
tion is confined to the winter season, and then it is very 
productive." At the Stillwater mills the crude ore was 
melted in the puddling furnace and iron castings were 
made. 

In 1725, Major Edward Winslow of Sniptuit was em- 
powered to set up an iron mill "on the Mattapoisett 
River." Rounseville's sawmill in Rochester was formerly 
known as the Winslow mill, but it is not certain that iron 
was ever manufactured at this site. At Hartley's mill, 
however, a little farther north, there are traces of an old 



The Eighteenth Century 107 

iron industry, and this may have been the site of Major 
Winslow's old iron works. 

In 1821 the iron works of Rochester seem to have been 
in regular operation, though Mr. Holmes records that the 
usefulness of the forge was cramped by the scarcity of 
water during the summer season. A few years later the 
town appointed certain agents to look after the town's 
deposits of iron ore which had been neglected, and to 
gather the ore and sell it to some iron works. But no 
report of these agents is recorded, and it seems probable 
that the whole iron business was about this time dis- 
continued. 

Pasturage was an important source of wealth in Roches- 
ter throughout the eighteenth century. About 1732 
many pages of records are given to the "distinguishing 
marks of the Cretures " of various owners, — a crop or 
half crop " on the nere ear," " two pennies under the 
ear," holes and crosses, a " flower de luce," "slits cut 
slantwise," and other marks by which the animals were 
to be known. Thus in 1778 David Dexter marked his 
cattle with "2 slits in the end of the left ear," which was 
the same mark that had been used by his grandfather, 
Caleb Dexter, many years before. 

Much legislation was also needed to keep the "Sheep- 
rams" within limits, and the swine properly "yoaked and 
ringed," as they ran at large over the common lands of the 
proprietary. In 1726 it was specified that a notice of a 
" Ram or Rames," running at large must be posted, " if 
in the village called the center at the hous of John Clapp 
and if in the village called Sipycan at the hous of John 
Briggs and if in the village called Sniptuit at the hous of 
Capt. Edward Winslow & if in the fresh meadow village 



108 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

& Weweantit at Isaac Bumpus his mill & if in Matta- 
poyset village at the house of John Hammond." 

It is related of Timothy Ruggles, Jr., afterward the 
noted Tory leader, that once, for a practical joke, he suc- 
ceeded in having a law passed that all the men who 
owned swine should have their noses ringed; a vote that 
later had to be recast so as to make it apply to the animals 
rather than the men. 

Something of the social and educational condition of 
Rochester in the early part of the eighteenth century may 
be learned from a diary begun in 1711, by Joseph Prince, 
the fifteen-year-old son of Samuel Prince, and continued 
at intervals for some years. It is a little book of seven- 
teen leaves, stitched together, and begins with the 
heading: 

" Joseph Prince, His Book. Anno Domini. Remarks. 
Aug. 4, 1711 Aage 15 years at hom." 
Then comes the first laconic daily entry: 
" da 4 Rany, Right, Read." 

But most days were not "Rany," and the boy records 
his daily work — " drive plow," "mow," "cut sproughts," 
"Rak and Cok Hay." "Reed and Ketch fish," and 
various other employments. It was a busy life that was 
led by the boys of Rochester in 1711. 

But the Prince home was one of education and culture, 
and each leisure hour or rainy day gave an opportunity 
always improved, to "Reed, Right and Sifer." Some- 
thing of the books then accessible may be learned from 
one entry, "An Accompt of the books that I rede out." 
It includes a list of thirty books, headed by " the bibel." 
Some of these are general books of history or information, 



The Eighteenth Century 109 

as "A Discourse Concerning Comets." Others are re- 
ligious books and include the following titles: 

"Time and the End of Time," — "Contemplations on 
Mortality," — "Now or Never the time to be saved," — 
"The Joy of Faith," — "The Foly of Sinning," — "The 
Sincear Convert," — " The poor Doughting Christian 
drawn to Christ." 

The first movement to provide a school in Rochester 
occurred in 1704, when a rate of ten pounds was voted to 
be put into Minister Arnold's hands for the support of a 
schoolmaster, and the next year the selectmen were em- 
powered to "engage some able person to teach children 
and Youth to Reed and Right," at a wage of two shill- 
ings a week with "dyet washing and lodging." Some 
other references to a school are made about 1705, but 
exactly what was done is not made clear, nor whether 
any teacher was really engaged. 

September 5, 1711, "mrs. jane masshell" was engaged 
as teacher, at a salary of twelve pounds a year and her 
" dyet," but three men of the town, "Joseph Benson, John 
dexter and ichobod burg," entered a protest that she was 
"not as the law directs." This uncomplimentary remark 
does not seem to have referred to Mrs. Masshell's moral 
character, but to her teaching qualifications, for in other 
years, schoolmasters were examined and duly approved 
as being "qualified as the law directs." But "jane mas- 
shell's" teaching service, if entered on at all, was short, for 
the following February John Myers was engaged "to 
sarve in the office of Skollmaster." He held the position 
for several years, beginning with a salary of twelve pounds 
and " dyet," which a year later was increased to sixteen 
pounds, and still later to twenty pounds. 



110 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

The school was migratory, lots being cast for the order 
of the terms, and the town being divided sometimes into 
four, but usually into five " quarters " for school purposes. 
The villages named as having terms of school include 
always Sippican, Mattapoisett, and either "the Center," 
"the Town," or "Whitehall" (the name of Mr. Prince's 
residence). During several years while the Prince family 
lived in Rochester, both u Whitehall " and " the Town or 
Meetinghouse Quarter" had school terms assigned to 
them, but a little later, "Whitehall or the Town" is 
named as having one term of school. In 1711 Pine Island 
is named as a school quarter, but this is not continued in 
later years. The earliest schools at Wareham were at 
"Fresh Meddows," but later "Weweyantit" is the lo- 
cality given. After 1723 Sniptuit becomes one of the 
school quarters. 

In 1717 Samuel Prince was empowered to provide the 
town with a grammar school, and in that year it was 
voted that " William Griffeth be schoolmaster for a quarter 
of a year, if he will agree on terms." In 1722-3 Timothy 
Ruggles and Samuel White examined Mr. Josiah Masshell 
(was this Mrs. jane Masshell's son?), and "did approve 
of him as a fltt person Quallified as the Law Directs." 
For a considerable number of years Benjamin De La Noy 
(Delano) was the town's schoolmaster. His salary rose 
as high as thirty pounds and his "dyet," and he was also 
provided with "the use of a horse." 

Hon. Abraham Holmes (born in 1754) wrote near the 
end of his long life, some " Memoirs," or a chronicle of 
events within his memory, in which he speaks of the schools 
of his boyhood as follows: 

"An old fashioned school was kept in Town of 12 



The Eighteenth Century 111 

months in a year. Sometimes a year was missed. This 
kept 3 months in each quarter of the Town, kept by men 
of very limited education. They generally were tolerable 
readers and wrote a legible hand — one by the name of 
Palmer was a fine penman. They were also possessed 
of the common rules of arithmetic and some of them 
understood something of surveying and navigation. What 
was taught in these schools was reading writing and the 
common rules of arithmetic. Nothing was said about 
grammar, composition, speaking, geography, or history. 
The schools were called to spell at night and to say the 
catechism on Saturday at noon. Very few books were 
then. Most families had a Bible, Testament a Salter and 
Spelling book, and a man could carry on his back the 
libraries of the professional men. Teaching surveying 
or navigation was not considered as a part of the duty of 
the schoolmaster, if they taught them they had separate 
pay. I believe about half a month's wages." 

Writing of himself in the third person, Mr. Holmes 
says: 

"No public school was kept in that part of the town 
then. ... He never had the benefit of a spelling book till 
after he was a man grown. However, by the assiduity of 
his parents and his sisters he was learned to read well, 
very well. He then took a fancy to writing, but it was 
with difficulty he could procure paper for the purpose, 
but he was indefatigable in attempting the formation of 
letters when he could obtain paper. ... In 1766 Mr. Wil- 
liams taught a public school in that Quarter of the Town, 
to that he went, being the first time he was ever in a school. 
Writing was his object then ; he went a fortnight, but made 
no proficiency." 



112 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

The school system of Rochester continued to be of the 
itinerary type for many years. Lots for the order of the 
terms are recorded as late as 1766. In 1770 a vote was 
passed about maintaining a grammar school. In 1789 
the law of the State allowing towns to divide themselves 
into school districts was passed, and in 1799 the district 
system was adopted in Rochester. 

An office that was held in much respect in New England 
during the eighteenth century was that of Justice of the 
Peace. Justices were appointed for seven years and had 
jurisdiction over minor claims and offences. Justices' 
courts were often held in Rochester. A justice had the 
title Esquire, and was given power to administer oaths 
and perform marriages. Many of the marriages recorded 
in Rochester were by Justices of the Peace, although by 
the middle of the eighteenth century it was becoming 
common for ministers also to perform this duty. The 
following Justices are named as performing marriages in 
Rochester : 

Peleg Whitridge, Abraham Holmes, Joseph Meigs, John 
Martin, Elisha Ruggles, Nathan Willis, Elijah Willis, 
James Ruggles, Noah Sprague, David Wing, Nathaniel 
Sprague. 

The following persons held the office of town clerk in 
Old Rochester, several of them serving for many years: 

Mark Haskell, Peter Blackmer, Samuel Sprague, 
Samuel Wing, William Raymond, Noah Sprague, James 
Foster, Seth Dexter, David Wing, Aaron Norton, Nathan 
Willis, Micah H. Ruggles, Abra'm Holmes, James Rug- 
gles, Rogers L. Barstow, W T . N. Ellis, Nahum Leonard, 
Jr., Theophilus King. 

The names of the selectmen of Rochester before 1697 



The Eighteenth Century 113 

have not been fully preserved. During 160 years, from 
1697 to 1857, the following persons served on the Board 
of Selectmen for the old town: 

Increase Clap, John Hammond, Benjamin Dexter, 
Aaron Barlow, John Summers, Elisha Wing, Timo Davis, 
John Randall, Peter Blackmer, Samuel Hammond, John 
Wing, John Benson, John White, John Briggs, Benjamin 
Dexter, William Griffeth, Joshua Lawrence, Benjamin 
Hammond, Edward Winslow, Samuel Sprague, John 
Dexter, John Cowing, Jeremiah Lout, Roger Haskell, 
Caleb Blakwell, Elisha Wing, Joseph Blackmer, Nicholas 
Snow, John Freeman, Samuel Wing, Noah Sprague, 

James Whitcomb, C Briggs, James Foster, Silas 

Briggs, Elisha Barrows, Elisha Freeman, Barzillai Ham- 
mond, Seth Hiller, Antipas Hammond, Seth Dexter, 
Nathaniel Hammond, David Wing, Nathaniel Ruggles, 
John Hammond, Samuel Sprague, Enoch Hammond, 
Samuel Ruggles, John Doty, Jabez Cottle, Melatiah White, 
John Burges, Stephen Wing, Nathaniel Sprague, Abra- 
ham Holmes, Aaron Norton, G. B. Nye, Joseph Gifford, 

Charles Sturtevant, Nicholas Davis, Harper Delano, 

Bisbe, Nathan Willis, Wilson Bars tow, N. Hammond, 
Gideon Barstow, Caleb Briggs, Timothy Hiller, Timothy 
Davis, Nathan Jenne, Joshua Pierce, John Church, 
Stephen Hammond, Stephen Delano, Charles J. Holmes, 
George King, Benjamin Barstow, Jr., Thomas Bassett, 
Peleg Whitridge, Philip Crandon, Eben Holmes, Elijah 
Willis, Noble E. Bates, Butler Wing, Amittai B. Ham- 
mond, Theophilus King. 

In the early part of the eighteenth century, the question 
of sending a representative to the General Court of the 
province seems to have been optional with the towns. 



114 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Later, this became a requirement, and in 1773 thirty towns 
of Massachusetts were fined for neglect of this duty. 
Rochester from an early date showed a stronger public 
spirit than some of the other towns in the neighborhood, 
and usually was represented in the province, though occa- 
sionally the vote to send a representative was passed in 
the negative. 

The representatives from Rochester to the General 
Court before the Revolution include the following names: 

Samuel Prince, John Hammond, Thomas Dexter, Jo- 
seph Benson, Thomas Turner, Benjamin Hammond, 
John Freeman, Timothy Ruggles, Jr., Noah Sprague, 
Elisha Barrows, Samuel Wing, Nathaniel Ruggles, Samuel 
Sprague. 

In 1720, owing to the scarcity of money in New Eng- 
land, the province made a grant of 50,000 pounds to be 
loaned in the towns. In 1721 Rochester voted to act on 
the town's part of this loan (which was 365 pounds), 
John Briggs and Benjamin Dexter being sent as agents 
to fetch the money into the town. Each person who 
borrowed money was to give bonds with a personal (not 
"real") security, and to pay a small interest to the town, 
and fourpence a pound to the agents for their services. 
The money could be held for four years, unless the town 
drew it in. The sum that could be loaned was divided 
into fifteen parts, and the persons who might draw were 
decided by lot. The fortunate citizens who drew the lot 
were Capt. Isaac Holmes, Nathan Hammond, James 
Steward, John Randall, Samuel Griffith, Samuel Sprague, 
Moses Barlow, William Raymond, Eben Holmes, Samuel 
Shearman, Joseph Haskell, John Dexter, Joseph Prince, 
William Noyes, Thomas Randall. 



The Eighteenth Century 115 

In 1749 the currency of the colony was regulated. 
Two kinds of paper money had been in circulation, in 
which a shilling of the new tenor was equal in value to 
three shillings of the old tenor. Both kinds were now 
redeemed by the Spanish milled dollar, and after March, 
1750, all debts were payable in coined silver under a law 
which made a shilling a sixth part of the Spanish dollar or 
sixteen and two thirds cents, so that the colonial pound 
equalled $3.33^ in silver. Money reckonings on this 
basis continued in use in Massachusetts for several gen- 
erations. During the Revolution the whole money system 
became again greatly demoralized. 

There is in existence an old tax roll of Rochester, made 
out in 1776, Nathaniel Hammond, David Wing, and John 
Doty being the assessors. 

This early tax list contains a mysterious set of entries 
regarding a "faculty tax." Thus in addition to his poll 
tax and tax for real and personal estate, a man might be 
called on to pay perhaps five shillings twopence as a 
"faculty tax." As we read the quaint record, together 
with the later information that " The tailor was taxed for 
his faculty," there comes over us an amused sense of 
shrewdness in these hard-headed old New Englanders in 
thus levying taxes on the well-known Yankee "faculty" 
or "knack at doing things." But a moment later, " Web- 
ster" takes the force out of this interesting suggestion by 
informing us that a "faculty" was a "license" or per- 
mission giving a "right to act." 

Between 1735 and the Revolution, a large number of 
families from Rochester and some from Dartmouth emi- 
grated to the town of Hardwick in Worcester County. 

The father of Minister Ruggles, Samuel Ruggles of 



116 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Roxbury, had for some years held proprietary rights in 
the lands at Hardwick, which was called the Elbows, and 
was still mostly unsettled. About 1732, his father having 
died, Rev. Timothy Ruggles made a visit to the Elbows, 
and after this undertook to promote its settlement. The 
names of Dexter, Sprague, Wing, Foster, Winslow, and 
Haskell are among the Rochester names that became repre- 
sented at Hardwick. Joseph Haskell, the youngest son of 
Mark Haskell, became an active agent in securing settlers 
for Hardwick, though he never moved there himself. 

In Mr. Ruggles's own large family of twelve children, 
six of the sons found homes finally in Hardwick. A 
family of nephews of Mr. Ruggles by the name of Robin- 
son were also among the Hardwick pilgrims; also a son- 
in-law, Paul Mendell from Dartmouth, who became 
prominent in the affairs of the new town. The best 
known of these Hardwick emigrants was Timothy Rug- 
gles, Jr., who, after practising law for some years in Roches- 
ter, moved in 1753 to Hardwick, the most noted events 
of his life being subsequent to that period. He served 
with distinction in the French War of 1755, attaining the 
rank of Brigadier-General. In 1765, Ruggles, Partridge, 
and Otis were sent as the three delegates from Massa- 
chusetts to the Stamp Act Congress in New York, Ruggles 
being chosen President of the body. But his rulings 
gave dissatisfaction to the Whigs, and Ruggles was repri- 
manded publicly. In 1774 he accepted the office of 
Mandamus Councillor under direct appointment by the 
crown. The members of this Council were held in greater 
odium than any other class of officers, and their appoint- 
ment greatly hastened the acts of rebellion in Boston. 
General Ruggles now became an open Tory. His coun- 



The Eighteenth Century 117 

trymen turned against him, his home in Hardwick was 
mobbed, and in 1776, after the evacuation of Boston, 
General Ruggles with most of the other Tories of New 
England moved to Nova Scotia. 

The French wars that preceded the Revolution made 
heavy demands on the towns of the old colony. In 
1755 General Winslow of Marshfield was sent with a 
body of Massachusetts troops to remove the inhabitants 
of Acadia, Nova Scotia. These people were of French 
descent, and though they were called " Neutrals " they 
were suspected of giving secret aid to the French. Gen- 
eral Winslow declared that the order was disagreeable to 
his natural make and temper, and that his principles of 
implicit obedience as a soldier were put to a severe test, 
but the order was carried out. 

In the rolls of soldiers in this Acadian (or Eastern) 
expedition, the towns from which the soldiers came are 
not named, but it seems certain that men from Rochester 
were in this expedition. On the return of the expedition 
one thousand of these unhappy French exiles were brought 
to Massachusetts and parceled out to the different towns, 
a number being apportioned to Rochester. They were 
strangers and exiles among people speaking a strange 
tongue. For some years they were a public charge, and 
various bills for " C loath for the french," and for "keep- 
ing the old french" appear on the town books. Several 
petitions for relief on account of the "nutural french" 
were sent to the General Court. Some of the Acadian 
people, however, became assimilated later among New 
Englanders, and some of the family names of French 
origin that are found in New England to-day may be 
traced to this Acadian source. 



118 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

In the later campaigns of the French and Indian War 
at Crown Foint, Ticonderoga, and in Canada, there were 
many soldiers from Rochester. Captain Bradford's com- 
pany in Col. Thomas Dotey's regiment in service in 
Canada, 17.58-1 700, was composed largely of Rochester 
men. Captain Pratt's company in the same regiment, 
and Capt. Abel Keen's company in another regiment, also 
had some Rochester men. In the hospital records at 
Crown Point, Rochester names may be found. In Col. 
Timothy Ruggles's regiment, among many Hardwick 
names, one may find some that were evidently from 
Rochester originally. Between 1700 and 17G3 also a 
considerable number of new recruits from Rochester were 
gathered. 

With the fall of Quebec the power of the French in 
America was broken, and in 1763 a treaty of peace was 
signed at Paris. The Colonial armies were kept up, 
however, and continued to contain men enrolled from 
Rochester for some years longer. 

Near the middle of the eighteenth century there were 
several epidemics of illness that were distressing and 
fatal. Mr. Holmes makes mention of a "throat dis- 
temper," which raged in Rochester in 1754, and proved 
fatal to almost all who were seized with it. He himself, 
an infant less than a year old, was attacked, but his father, 
having heard of a remedy known to an Indian named 
Nathan Hope, and to three white men, and called by them 
" Cold water root," procured some for his child, who 
quickly recovered. In the powdered medicine there was 
one piece of root which was not pulverized. The father 
planted it in his garden to see if it would grow. It did so, 



The Eighteenth Century 119 

and developed into a wild herb common to all the region. 
The remedy thus became known, and from this time for- 
ward the " distemper " was no longer to be greatly dreaded. 

Minister Le Baron writes: "In 1758 a slow, putrid 
fever raged in Second Precinct, and proved mortal to 
thirty in about three months, population 250. It is 
observable that the inhabitants of a few houses which are 
situated on the East side of extensive flat swamps have 
been peculiarly subject to bilious acute diseases and con- 
sumptions and sudden deaths have in a remarkable man- 
ner been the Lot of those who have indulged themselves 
in the use of distilled spirituous liquors." 

In times of public distress, whether from illness or 
from drought, fast-days were appointed and services were 
held in the churches to pray for relief. 

Under the head of " Remarkable Providences," the old 
First Church Book records some signal answers to prayers 
for rain in this and neighboring parishes, among which 
are the following: 

"August 12th a fast Day was kept at Wareham on 
account of a great Drought and that Day before night 
there was a good plentifull rain over the town and none 
in the next, the very dividing line of the Towns Divided 
(as it were) the clouds. Also, the next day fast day was 
kept at Middleborough new precinct and a plentifull rain 
fell the same night. At which time the Rev'd. Mr. Peter 
Thatcher of Middleborough gave us an account of two 
more parishes that kept a fast day on ye account of ye 
Drought within a fortnight of the time above expressed 
who had an immediate answer of prayer by rain and it 
extended only over the parish who kept sd day and no 
elsewhere." 



120 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

June 24, 1741, "a fast day was kept at Dartmouth on 
acct. of the Drought and it was known before, so the 
Quakers gave out word as they Desired it may not rain 
next day (tho much needed) for if it Did the ministers and 
people who attended would say It was owing to sd prayers, 
but God in his Justice Goodness & mercy was pleased 
to give a gracious answer & it began to rain before the 
forenoon service was over & continued till night. It was 
much the same in Rochester." 

In the records of the First Church occurs also the fol- 
lowing : 

"Rochester, Aug. 9, 1770 Being a day set apart by ye 
chh for prayer & fasting on account of a severe drought 
ye chh were stayed after public service & voted that ye 
Scriptures should be read as part of ye Public worship 
on Lord's Day." 

With the long sermons and prayers that were the rule 
in the churches, and the length of time it took to sing a 
Psalm, one need scarcely wonder that Scripture reading 
had been neglected as a feature of public worship. 

The Psalm, "turned into meter," was lined off, or 
"deaconed" by some appointed person, and when sung to 
the slow tunes then in vogue, the singing was a work of 
time. The Bay Psalm Book was everywhere in use in 
this region at the middle of the eighteenth century. Two 
generations later, "Watts and Select" had almost the 
same universal distinction. In the early years only a few 
church tunes were known, two or three for each meter 
offering the usual range of choice. 

In 1748 the First Parish voted that "Whereas some- 
times Deacon Elisha Freeman is absent who is appointed 
to set the Psalm, it is voted in his absence that Josephus 



The Eighteenth Century 121 

Hammond do it, and in his absence Mr. Joseph Lovel, 
and in his Mr. Seth Dexter do it." 

During the eighteenth century all over New England 
a contest arose between the advocates of "singing by 
rote" and "singing by rule." The feeling of those who 
opposed "singing by rule" was thus expressed by one 
writer of the age : " If they sing by rule they will also 
pray by rule and preach by rule, and then comes 
popery." But the "singing by rule" party finally tri- 
umphed. Near the time of the Revolution many books 
of tunes were published. Some of them had marked in- 
novations in the style of tunes, and included some 
tunes with a strong accent and a triple time movement 
instead of the long uniform notes of the olden tunes. 
" Fuguing " also came into fashion, though at first strongly 
discountenanced by persons of sober mind. The New 
England Singing School became a marked feature of New 
England village life for two generations. The "taught" 
singers were also gathered into choirs, and " part singing " 
was developed. 

The emphasis in the music agitations before the begin- 
ning of the nineteenth century had shifted to the question 
of musical instruments in the churches. Pitch pipes were 
first introduced, then the bass viol, after that the violin, and 
various other instruments. Among the churches in this 
vicinity, that of Wareham seems to have been most strongly 
agitated by the bass viol question; and here a compromise 
was for a time arranged, giving leave to the bass viol to 
be " played every other Sunday, and not to Pitch the Tunes 
on the Sabbath that it don't play." The churches in 
Rochester did not escape these music dissensions, but the 
orchestral instruments made their way into use, retaining 



122 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

their place until the advent of the melodeon, followed by 
that of the church organ, near the middle of the nineteenth 
century. 

During the eighteenth century the tithing-man was a 
regular parish officer, his duty being to prevent Sabbath 
desecration, or, as was recorded in the books of the First 
Parish, to * Inspect the Youth on the Lord's Day to pre- 
vent the profanation of the Lord's Day and to bring them 
to punishment if they don't reform." 

In 1748, at the First Precinct, it took ten of these tithing- 
men to <k keep good orders on the Sabbath Day," three 
for the galleries, three for the body of the house, and four 

to take their turns in the Intermission of Divine Ser- 

• »> 
vice. 

Tithing-men were on duty in Rochester for many years. 
From a letter by Henry B. Worth, Esq., of New Bedford, 
the following paragraph is (in substance) quoted: 

"The following advertisement appeared in the New 
Bedford Mercury May 15, 1815. 

" ' The Tythingmcn of Rochester gave notice that they 
should enforce the law. 

Jonathen King, John Clap, 
Joseph Whitredge, Seth Haskell, 

Wm. Smith, Jesse Haskell, 

Allen Marshall, Noah Dexter, 

George B. Nye, Ezekiel Cushman, 

Sherman Lincoln, Jonathan Church.' 

"But one wonders why it was inserted. If aimed at 
Rochester Sabbath-breakers, the notice might not reach 
them. Perhaps the warning was intended for young 



The Eighteenth Century 123 

people who might drive for pleasure from New Bedford 
to Rochester, and the purpose was to keep away from the 
town an element that might create disorder. In a sea- 
faring community like New Bedford there were many 
such spirits, and I have no doubt that the villages of 
Sippican were fully as attractive on Sunday in 1815 as 
now. Hence, the good Sunday constables were deter- 
mined to rid the town of a nuisance. But the number 
of tithing-men is large for a town of the population of 
Rochester, — twelve." 

Cases of church discipline were very common, both for 
suspected lapses in morals, and also for absenting oneself 
from the Sacrament and attending the meetings of the two 
chief "heretical" sects of the region, the Quakers and the 
'* Anabaptists." But with the widening lines of thought 
that came in after the Revolution, a larger toleration in 
church and religious matters begins to be manifest. 

From Mr. Holmes's Chronicle, other glimpses of the town 
life at the middle of the eighteenth century may be 
gained : 

"There was not a wagon of any kind in town, there 
were ox-carts and horse-carts, add to these two old riding- 
chairs. . . . Such a thing as a chaise was never heard of. 
The first that came through Rochester made as much of a 
wonderment as a Baloon would have done. . . . No person 
could tell what to call it, at last it was concluded that it 
was a calash. 

"The horses were generally poor creatures. In the 
summer they lived on grass, in the winter on hay only, 
except when they were going on a journey when on the 
evening previous they would have a mess of bran wet. It 
was a high priced horse that was valued at $40. A horse 



124 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

more than nine years old was considered of little 
value. 

"There was no such thing as a clock in town. There 
were three ministers in Town and each had a watch. I 
believe there were no others in Rochester. . . . Not a single 
pair of silver Buckles were then in Rochester, and an 
umbrella or a parasol would have made a wonderment. . . . 
Very few gloves were worn unless when a man was to be 
marry ed. 

"Good dancing was considered a very important ac- 
complishment. Other diversions among the young people 
were a number of plays, such as breaking the Pope's neck, 
the Button, — and among the Quakers who did not allow 
dancing Blindfold was a very popular amusement. 

"As for the Bill of fare at the Table they generally had 
a boiled dish, the first course was a Bowl of broth then 
called porridge, generally some beans in it and some dry 
summer savery sprinkled in. Then came an Indian pud- 
ding with sauce with it, then some beef pork and round 
turnips and a few small potatoes. The quantity of pota- 
toes was very small, three bushels was considered a mon- 
strous crop and these very small. I was a considerable 
Lad before I ever saw a potato as big as a hen's 

egg-" 

From old writings like these, dealing with things that 
in themselves seem trivial, we get a vivid picture of a 
phase of human life that is not only interesting in itself 
(especially to the descendants of the men and women who 
are described), but it was also important in its effects on 
American life and history. It was a very human life that 
was lived by these forbears of ours of a hundred and fifty 
years ago. There are elements in the picture that seem 



The Eighteenth Century 125 

to us crude and unjustifiable as well as amusing. But 
underlying the narrow eccentricities we find the rugged 
and homely virtues that made New England the power 
that she was in shaping the character and destinies of the 
American nation. 



CHAPTER VII 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 



WITH the breaking out of the Revolution, the town 
of Rochester entered on a special phase of history, 
one that is peculiar to New England. The Middle and 
Southern Colonies played a large role in Revolutionary 
affairs, but they did not have the town meeting. At this 
period the little town democracy was lifted above the petty 
anxieties attending its own local affairs and stood face to 
face with political questions of the largest moment. The 
story of one town is in a sense the story of all. 

In September, 1768, at the request of the Boston Com- 
mittee, Rochester sent delegates to the Convention at 
Faneuil Hall, which passed resolutions protesting against 
the taxing of the colonies. In Plymouth Colony as a 
whole, there was at first much apathy toward the spirit 
that was arising in Boston. There were many who took 
pride in being British-born subjects and felt a good deal 
of loyalty to the King. James Warren declared to Samuel 
Adams that Plymouth County towns could not be raised 
except by a power that would wake the dead. Rochester, 
however, responded more readily to the appeal of Boston 
than most of the towns in the neighborhood. 

In December, 1772, after another letter of correspond- 
ence from Boston, a spirited set of resolutions was passed, 
endorsing the plans of the Boston Committee. 



The Revolutionary War 127 

Samuel Sprague, who had been the town's representa- 
tive since 1768, was suspected of holding Tory sentiments. 
So the town voted : 

* That if our representative or any other person in this 
Town that either has or shall hereafter basely Desert the 
Cause of Liberty for the Sake of being promoted to a 
Post of Honour or profit or for any other Mean View to 
Self Intrust shall be looked upon as an Enemy to his 
Country & be treated with that Neglect & Contempt 
that he Justly Deserves." 

The next year Samuel Sprague was not re-elected. He 
was succeeded by Ebenezer White, who was afterwards 
Lieutenant Colonel of a militia regiment. Lieutenant- 
Colonel White held the office of representative for many 
years, during the first fourteen of which he was unani- 
mously elected, and during this difficult Revolutionary 
period the town intrusted him with many important 
duties. 

With the advent of the tea question in 1773, a letter 
was received from Boston asking the advice of the towns, 
as to what was to be done. At the town meeting then 
held the usual moderator was absent, and David Wing, 
— the careful town clerk, whose copious records in 
minute printed letters awaken the admiration of the 
reader — thought it prudent to remain at home. Yet 
after some delays and embarrassments, the meeting at 
last became very free and spirited. Energetic resolutions 
were passed, and "the citizens subscribed a solemn 
league and covenant to abstain from the use of tea, and 
to transact no business with those who would not become 
parties to the Covenant." 

During 1774 many town meetings were held. It was 



128 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

voted "To sign a covenant to break off trade with Great 
Britain until the Boston Port Bill is repealed." Repre- 
sentative White was enjoined " not to act in conformity 
with the Act of Parliament altering the Charter." Charles 
Nye was appointed to examine the town stock. Forty 
firearms were purchased for the use of the town. Nathan 
Nye, Jr., was directed to "make up the Town Stock of 
powder to 400 weight with Lead and Flints Answerable." 
The Assessors were directed u not to make up the Province 
Rate," but at a later meeting this vote was reconsidered. 

It was also voted "to choose officers to take ye Com- 
mand of the Military Companies," and that "Every 
minute man (so-called) in Rochester to the number of 
One Hundred that shall attend Three Half Days in each 
week as shall be appointed by their Captain & Twice in a 
month in one Body to Learn the use of the Fire-Licks 
from this day to the first Day of April next & be Ready 
to March when Needed & Equip Himself with a Good 
Firearm & other acooterments as Recommended by the 
Provential Congress shall be Entitled to one Shilling ye 
Week." 

September 26, 1774, a company of young men from 
Rochester made an incursion into Barnstable County in 
order to prevent the Inferior Court of Common Pleas from 
holding its regular session. The excuse given was that 
the method of drawing jurors by the sheriff instead of out 
of a box in town meeting put in jeopardy the rights of the 
people. The real aim, however, was, by breaking up the 
County Court to destroy an avenue through which busi- 
ness could pass to higher courts that were under the King's 
control. One of this company was young Abraham 
Holmes, whose zeal for liberty did much to arouse the 



The Revolutionary War 129 

Revolutionary spirit of Rochester. As the company 
passed through Wareham and Sandwich, they were re- 
inforced by others of like spirit, and on reaching Barn- 
stable they succeeded in preventing the session of the 
Court, and compelling the judges to sign certain pledges. 
After holding a political meeting at Barnstable, at which 
it was resolved to boycott British goods and to suppress 
pedlers who sold Bohea tea, the agitators dispersed. 

When the battle of Lexington occurred, April 19, 1775, 
the rumor reached Rochester April 20, but it was scarcely 
believed. Abraham Holmes, then twenty-one years of 
age, was sent to learn the truth of the rumor. On reach- 
ing Middleboro, he met a messenger who confirmed the 
report, and Mr. Holmes records that he returned to 
Rochester "as gay as a lark" at the joyful news that the 
struggle for Independence was really begun. 

Three companies of militia from Rochester marched to 
Boston in response to the Lexington call. The "First 
Company of Minute-men," under Capt. Edward Ham- 
mond, a " Second foot Company of Militia," under Capt. 
Nathaniel Hammond, and a third company under Lieut. 
Seth Briggs, with which the Rev. Jonathan Moore, pastor 
of the First Church of Rochester, went as Chaplain. Mr. 
Holmes records in his diary that because of some mis- 
understanding in the regiment, formed in the summer 
of 1775, in Plymouth County, none of the Rochester 
Militia officers would accept commissions. But this 
must have been a temporary situation, for there were 
afterwards many commissioned officers from Rochester. 

The three companies that marched from Rochester 
after the Lexington alarm saw only a few days' service 
at this time. In August of the same year, Capt. Edward 



130 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Hammond's company, with its enrolment much changed, 
and a company under Capt. Earl Clap were in service at 
Boston. Gideon Hammond is also mentioned as a cap- 
tain in the regular army in 1775. Earl Clap rose to the 
rank of Major in the General Army. He was at the 
battle of Bunker Hill, and in later life had a pension of 
$560 a year. 

In 1776 a Rochester company was in service under 
Capt. Samuel Briggs; in 1778 two companies were in 
service under Capt. Nathaniel Hammond and Capt. 
Elisha Haskell; and in 1780 there were in service in 
Rhode Island in the Fourth Plymouth County Regiment, 
under Lieutenant-Colonel White, four companies from 
Rochester under Capt. Charles Church, Capt. Nathaniel 
Hammond, Capt. Barnabas Doty, and Capt. Samuel 
Briggs. There were also many Rochester men in com- 
panies formed in other towns of the State. The person 
of most note in the military record of Rochester, perhaps, 
was Major Elnathan Haskell, who became one of Wash- 
ington's Aids. His portrait in this capacity may be seen 
in the great painting representing Burgoyne's Surrender, 
in the dome of the Capitol in Washington. After the 
War, Major Haskell settled in South Carolina. 

It is difficult at present to make a complete list of the 
Rochester men who did military service in the Revolution, 
but from various enlistment rolls, — muster rolls, records 
of "New Levies," of pensions, bounties, and men dis- 
charged, a list of some hundreds could be compiled. It 
was said at the Rochester Bi-Centennial that "it is a 
historical fact that Rochester furnished more men in 
proportion to territory and inhabitants than any other 
town in the Old Colony." 




w J. 






The Revolutionary War 131 

It is even more difficult to make an accurate list of 
those who did naval service. Naval records were less 
carefully kept than those of the military. Much of the 
naval service also was by privateering, and this was not 
officially recorded. But many men of Rochester followed 
the sea, and were drawn into naval action. Minister 
Le Baron has recorded the fatalities in this service from 
Mattapoisett as follows : " In late war a No. lost at Sea out 
of Mattap't, David Rogers, Captain Rogers, M. Barlow, 
Joseph Barlow & Reuben, Jo Wing & Wyett Wing — 
Daniel H. Cowen, Indian Boy, Jo Clarke, Aaron Parker, 
Lothrop Hamond — Seth Hamond — Micah Hamond, 
Thos. Williams Jn Cushing, Elisha Toby, Wm. Toby, 
Sol Young, Ez Hovey, Asa Price, Francis Luce, Eleazer 
Allen, — Norton, Calvin Hamond — Nie Stevens, Timo 
Stephens, Jabez Dexter — Jonathan Annable, Sam'l 
Annable, — Anthony Hamond — Andrew Southw'd." 

In 1775 it was voted to hire one hundred pounds to buy 
war stores, also " two Boats for the use of Capt. Nathaniel 
Hammond's Company " ; also " to send to the West Indies 
by Capt. Moses Barlow for powder, firearms, molasses 
and other war supplies." 

A climax was now approaching, and the records in- 
crease in interest. May 23, 1776, it was " Voted that when 
the Honourable Congress shall think best to Declare them- 
selves Independant of the Kingdom of Great Brittain 
that we will Defend them with our Lives & Fortunes." 

Soon the link was severed that bound the colonies to 
the mother country, and now arose new governmental 
questions. The town government holds on its way, but 
all else is in a transitional and chaotic state. Each little 
town by its decisions, made known through its representa- 



132 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

tive, will help to direct the trend of State and national 
affairs. November 5, 1776, Rochester voted "That the 
Present General Court of this State agree upon and settle 
a form of government for the present, to be subject to 
alteration if need be Hereafter." 

But the making of State Constitutions requires time and 
meanwhile the war-needs continue. Not only must 
weapons be furnished to the soldiers, but they need the 
inspiriting influence of music as well. So the town votes 
the sum of sixty pounds to "purchase guns Drums and 
Fifes"; also "Voted that the Town draw 50 firearms 
belonging to the Continant to be returned when called 
for." New committees are also appointed to take care 
of the families of the soldiers. Enoch Hammond did 
much service during the war in the care of soldiers* sup- 
plies arid soldiers' families, and was called "The Father 
of the Town." * 

The draft of the State Constitution being prepared, on 
May 22, 1777, the town of Rochester took it " into Con- 
sideration, and after Mature Deliberation thereon said 
Town voted said form," but added a list of comments 
and objections, one of which runs thus : 

"The Ninth Article seems to be attended with some 
Difficulty as To vote for Sennators in the furthest parts 
of the State when we cannot be acquainted with their 
Quallifications Said Town think it best that Each District 
choose their own Senators & no more." 

Meanwhile, army reverses had brought a feeling of 
depression, and a spirit of opposition to the war showed 
itself which must be suppressed. A committee of inspec- 
tion was formed in Rochester at an early date to call to 
account those who uttered Tory sentiments. One of 



The Revolutionary War 133 

those dealt with had said that he "wished the people of 
Rochester were in hell for their treatment of Ruggles and 
Sprague," but on expressing repentance he was duly 
forgiven. 

In 1776, Samuel Sprague, the former town representa- 
tive, was accused by Isaac Snow, chairman of the Inspec- 
tion Committee, as unfriendly to the cause of the colonies. 
It was declared that " he was one of the Addressors of the 
late Governor Hutchinson (the Tory Governor), that 
afterwards he had subscribed a declaration manifesting 
his repentance and retraction of said address, — which 
confession and retraction was to the general satisfaction 
of the town, — but that he had since retracted his former 
confession and repentance and, on the seventh of June 
last, did declare that he was not convinced of the justice 
of the Cause of the Colonies, and that he utterly refused 
to take up arms or be in any way personally active in the 
defence of the Common Cause of the Colonies." 

Exactly what was done about it is not very clear. Sprague 
did not become an out-and-out Tory. He was probably 
a man of balanced mind, who recognized some justice on 
both sides of the great struggle. He sold his home in 
Rochester soon afterwards, and in the last part of his life 
was a resident of Fairhaven. He lived to advanced age, 
and in his closing years was the oldest man living who 
had served as representative to the General Court. He 
died in 1825, and left in his will a bequest to his native 
town from which it still derives benefit, and which is 
known as the "Sprague Legacy." 

Another man in Rochester, whose Tory sympathies 
were even more pronounced than those of Samuel Sprague, 
was Nathaniel Sears. He, too, was arraigned by Isaac 



134 Mattapoisctt and Old Rochester 

Snow of the Committee of Inspection, but there is no 
evidence that he was won over to the side of the colonies. 
Possibly the zeal of Isaac Snow in the American cause 
sometimes outran his discretion. In 1781 he was dis- 
ciplined by the First Church of Rochester because, in a 
religious service in which Rev. Thomas West of North 
Rochester was the preacher, the said Isaac Snow "spoke 
out and called Mr. West an old Tory, while he was preach- 
ing." But the "Committee of Inspection" was held to 
be a necessary office, and in 1779 u The town made choice 
of Earl Clap to Take evidence against those that are 
Enemical to the American States agreeable to a Late Act 
of this State." 

About this time a rather obscure and complicated 
record occurs. A town meeting was called "To choose 
3, 5 or 7 persons who shall be under Oath to prosicute all 
Breaches of the Act for preventing Monopoly & Oppres- 
sion which come to their knowledge or of which they shall 
receive information and all Breaches of an Act Intitled 
An Act in Addition to and Amending an Act intitled An 
Act for preventing Monopoly, etc." 

As the weary struggle went on, and the money depre- 
ciated in value, the people grew desperate. Many kinds 
of money were in use. Sometimes in the account of a 
single transaction, several kinds of money are named. 
We read of money of the "New Emmission" and the 
"Old Emmission," of "Hard Money," as well as "Con- 
tinential Currancy." These, with English money also in 
use, and changing values for all, and various counterfeits 
in circulation, made all financial transactions embarrass- 
ing. 

As an illustration of the state of affairs we read that at 



The Revolutionary War 135 

one town meeting Rochester voted one hundred hard 
dollars as bounty for the soldiers, made an appropria- 
tion of " 671 £ in Bills of ye new Emission for army beef," 
and an "assessment of 1860 Continential Dollars upon 
the town to pay for Constables." 

Many futile resolutions were passed in regard to the 
money situation. May 26, 1779, after certain resolves 
relating to efforts ".to appreciate the Currancy" had been 
passed, the following malediction was added : 

" Whoever shall Directly or Indirectly violate either of 
Sd resolves made for this important purpose shall be 
Deemed Infamous & held up to view as an Enemy to ye 
Indepindence, freedom & happiness of his Country by 
publishing his name in ye newspapers published in this 
State, after which publication it shall be Disrespectfull in 
any Good Citizen to maintain Either Social or Commer- 
cial Connections with a wretch so Lost to all publick 
Virtue as wantonly to Sacrafice the Intrest of his Country 
to the acquisition of a Little paltery Gain." 

It was chiefly the financial troubles which caused the 
excitements and illegal actions in Massachusetts towns 
that were focalized in the western counties as "Shay's 
Rebellion," and made painfully evident the need of a 
stronger national government that could regulate for all 
the States their monetary system. 

About this time a committee of thirteen was chosen to 
"Stipulate prices of Labour & of Sundry articles sold to 
the Town." A few days later, delegates from Rochester 
attended a Convention at Plympton to discuss the same 
questions. The prices reported at the Plympton Con- 
vention throw some light on the monetary situation. 
Among them were the following: 



136 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

£ s 

Labour, Common Labour a Day 42 

Mowing 54 

IToup wrights a Day 3 

Millwrights a Day 3 12 

Masons 3 6 

Shiprights a Day 3 12 

Tanners Sole Leather, a lb 18 

Shoemakers for making a pair of men's shoes . 42 

Women's shoes & finding heels by the shoemaker 42 

Making a pair of strong men's shoes and finding all 6 

Prices were also given of " Nails, lumber, pasture, cole, 
wood, fish, (fresh fish without entrails at ye waterside 1* 
a pound) etc." Other articles were referred to the com- 
mittee for further regulation. 

August 19, 1779, the town chose Nathaniel Hammond 
as delegate to a State Convention at Cambridge called to 
form a New State Constitution. It also appointed a 
committee of four to prepare instructions for Captain 
Hammond's guidance in the Convention. This com- 
mittee presented an elaborate report with many explicit 
directions to Captain Hammond. 

The Constitution proposed by the Cambridge Conven- 
tion was duly presented to the town for consideration and, 
in May, 1780, it was voted upon, article by article. Two 
articles in the Bill of Rights were voted upon adversely, 
and a number of alterations were proposed, one of them 
being: "That there be added to the above Frame of 
Government That there shall no slave be born nor Im- 
ported into this Commonwealth." 

We are not told whether the Rochester amendments 



The Revolutionary War 137 

made any difference in the final form of the State Consti- 
tution; but the instrument went into effect duly, and 
September 4, 1780, the citizens met in town meeting, and 
voted for State Officers, John Hancock being chosen Gov- 
ernor, with Robert Treat Paine as Lieutenant-Governor. 

In December, 1781, a town meeting was called, "To 
protest against duties laid on Rum wine &c & if thought 
best to take Lawfull measures to obtain redress of the 
Grievance." It was voted that "The Act is Disagreeable 
to the Town," and a committee was chosen to petition 
for redress. It is plain that the Rochester of that date 
would not have tolerated either high license or prohibition. 

One result of the money troubles was that it became 
extremely difficult for the town to raise the new " cota of 
32 soldiers," called for in 1780 to fill the ranks of the 
depleted armies. The committee report that they cannot 
"hire any soldiers in town by reason of Disapointments 
many soldiers have met with in the depreciation of their 
wages before they were paid." It was therefore "voted 
to promise the soldiers that any such Depreciation should 
be made up by the town"; also a bounty of " 12£ & no 
more," was to be paid to each soldier, " in gold, silver or 
produce," as he should choose, and soldiers in the field 
were to have " l<2£ in Cloathing and other necessaries for 
self & family." At last by strenuous efforts of the com- 
mittee, aided by bounties to "3 mos. men," and to "6 
mos. men," the "cota" was made up; but in January, 
1781, a new committee of eight was appointed to hire "25 
soldiers called for by the General Court to serve for three 
years or during the war." A bounty for these soldiers 
was also voted, of " One Hundred hard dollars each year 
in January." 



138 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

A matter which gave increasing irritation was the requi 
sition on the town for beef for the army. It was a never- 
ceasing need, and became at last a most onerous burden. 

December 30, 1782, it was voted "to petition the Great 
& General Court to receive in all the paper money of both 
Emissions now in the Town's hands and (Jive the Town 
credit for the same." In January, 1787, however, it was 
reported that the town has " 946 £ — l().v — 5d of the new 
Emmission & 49144£ — 8s — of the Old Emmission," 
though a considerable number of bills of each u ware coun- 
terfeit." 

Peace was declared in 1783, but it was long before the 
blessings of peace came to the burdened community. Oi. 
the contrary, the confusion and dissatisfaction grew ever 
stronger. The feeling toward the government is shown 
by the attitude of the town-meeting toward certain grants 
of the Continental Congress to officers of the army. 

February 6, 1784, the town's committee reported the 
following spirited protest which was adopted: 

" To wit that it is the opinion of your Committee that 
the paying of the Officers of the Continential army 5 years 
wages after their service is Ended is highly unreasonable 
& oppressive & will be productive of many bad conse- 
quencies as one notorious bad presedent. However the 
power of Congress may be we think the Grant made by 
them to sd officers was obtained by undue influence & if 
no Negative to Sd Grant is yet to be admitted (notwith- 
standing all their Good Service) we shall Esteam them 
Publick Nusances & Treat them in that Curracter." 

Thus the town of Rochester set its own opinion on 
national affairs above that of Congress, and proposed " to 
act accordingly." 



The Revolutionary War 139 

Peace having been declared, Commerce began to receive 
attention, and in May, 1785, the town instructed Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel White to use his " Influence that a large 
Impost be laid on all Goods imported in British Bottoms "; 
also, in 1786, to use his influence, u that there be a Bank 
of paper money Emitted by the General Court." In 
August, 1786, Earl Clap, Nathaniel Hammond, and 
Abraham Holmes were made a committee " to correspond 
with the other Towns in order to Divise & Adopt" legal 
measures for a redress of grievances. 

Several weeks later, this committee reported, and the 
town then gave very extended instructions to Colonel 
White, "which we expect you to follow & by no means 
depart from them." These instructions, prepared it is 
said by Abraham Holmes, cover five or six pages of closely 
written foolscap, and discuss most far-reaching and im- 
portant principles of government, such as the redemption 
of the currency, the right of Congress to lay taxes on the 
State, the Constitutional power of the General Court to 
place a check on the Acts of Congress, the system of 
taxation that should be employed, the principle of exempt- 
ing ministers from taxation, and of making grants to army 
officers. All of these things are committed to the " utmost 
endeavors" of Colonel White with the words, "May the 
great Fountain of Goodness and Knowledge assist you in 
discharging this Trust with Success." 

The preparation of such documents by the country 
towns shows the magnitude of the intellectual labor 
by which the state and national governments were 
developed. 

But the effort of small communities to direct the larger 
affairs of State and nation had its dangers. Disorders 



140 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

were arising, and the excited people in certain towns of 
Massachusetts overstepped legal bounds in their attempts 
to regulate abuses. The story of Shay's Rebellion may 
be read on the pages of the school text-books. It came 
as a warning to law-abiding persons to pause and see 
whither things were tending. 

February 12, 1787, a town meeting of a very different 
spirit was held in Rochester, " on account of the Con- 
fusions & Disorders in the Commonwealth." A com- 
mittee of five was chosen to draft a petition and report in 
one hour. This report expresses the u Attachment of the 
town of Rochester to the Government of Massachusetts 
& its poignant regret for the late unhappy disorders." 
But it adds: 

"We humbly pray that the troops under General Lin- 
coln (now the Insurgents are disbursed) may be imme- 
diately disbanded. We think this would restore Publick 
tranquillity if an Act of General Indemnity be passed & 
we pray your honours patience in praying you to take 
measures for suitably lowering the Salaries of the Servants 
of Government & take into your wise Consideration that 
late act of suspending the privelidge of the writ of Habeas 
Corpus." 

The law adviser of General Lincoln who commanded 
the State troops during this time of agitation was John 
Sprague, who was born in Mattapoisett village in 1746, 
and at this time was the Justice of the Court of Common 
Pleas for Worcester County. 

About this time reports were carried to Boston against 
Abraham Holmes. It was said that he was a dangerous 
person, since it was well known that he did not approve 
of the acts of the Legislature. He went before the Senate 



The Revolutionary War 141 

in his own defense, declaring that he had done nothing 
revolutionary. But learning that a state warrant had been 
issued for his arrest, and fearing that since the act of 
Habeas Corpus was suspended he should be held in jail 
without a trial, he left Rochester privately during a snow- 
storm, and remained for a time in Rhode Island. Later 
he returned to Rochester openly and his fellow-citizens, 
who had been his firm supporters and indignant defenders 
during the agitation, gave him an enthusiastic welcome, and 
the next year sent him as their representative to the Gen- 
eral Court. 

But the time was at hand when governmental questions 
were to be settled on a broader basis. Not the little 
towns, discussing from a local standpoint these matters 
of national concern, not the several States jealous of their 
own State rights, nor yet the Continental Congress with 
its limited powers, could settle finally these tremendous 
complications. But a broader tribunal was even then 
constructing the instrument which should marshal the 
conflicting elements into an organized whole. 

December 20, 1787, the town of Rochester "Voted to 
read the proposed Federal Constitution in Town Meeting, 
& to send two delegates to the State Convention at Bos- 
ton," Capt. Nathaniel Hammond and Mr. Abraham 
Holmes being chosen for this honored service. 

So the Federal Constitution began its harmonizing 
rule, and a year later (December 18, 1788) a town meeting 
was convened to choose " One Member of the House of 
Representatives of the united States of America, to be the 
Representative of Plymouth and Barnstable Counties; 
also to vote for two persons as electors for President and 
vice-President of the united States of America." 



142 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

The Revolution was at last ended, and now the town 
records change their character, and again glide naturally 
into the election of local officers and the ever-seasonable 
regulation of the "Herren fisheries." 



CHAPTER VIII 



AFTER THE REVOLUTION 



THE Revolution being over, the town of Rochester 
began again to give attention to its own development. 
Minister Le Baron writes concerning the town, in 1786: 

"Length N. & S. 10, E. & W. 7, — containing two 
rivers, Mattapoisett and Sipican, on which there are 10 
grist mills 13 sawmills, 2 forges and 1 fuling mill; on other 
less streams 1 foundry, 3 gristmills & 1 sawmill. Agri- 
culture not highly improved. Our Navigation is so much 
an object of our attention as to be a great disadvantage to 
our Husbandry. As we have a large proportion of sheep 
the Inhabitants are enabled to manufacture much the 
greater part of the thick cloth that is worn & we have 
about 4 vessels employed in the Whaling fishery, about the 
principal source of our specie. Ship building & iron are 
two branches of manufactory not unprofitable." 

The fulling mills were used to dress the cloth woven in 
the homes from wool and flax. Among the many mills 
that have stood at the Sippican mill site by Leonardo 
Pond since the beginning of the town history, there was 
once a fulling mill. Another also stood for a time at the 
Dexter Dam at Rochester Center. 

Around the shore of Mary's Pond, a strip of land two 
rods wide was owned by the town itself, secure from 
private ownership, where the flax could be "rotted," so 



144 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

that it might afterwards be " broken" and prepared for 
manufacture. In the clear waters at the edge of this 
pond one may to-day see the stones that were used to 
keep the flax in its place during this preparatory process. 

In 1815 there were in town fourteen sawmills and two 
forges, one having a trip hammer, the other a furnace. 
At that time also, we are told, "3000 or more sheep are 
subsisted in Rochester," and "There are farms in the 
place estimated at $9000/' 

After the building of the First Parish meeting-house in 
17G0, the old meeting-house of 1717 became "the town 
house," though the larger town gatherings seem to have 
been held usually in the new meeting-house. 

In 1773 the town voted to cut the old meeting-house 
down to one story, and divide it by a partition, also to 
build a chimney on one end which was to be fitted up for 
a workhouse, "to promote Industery and set to work 
those that live Idly and Misspend their time." The 
other part was to be seated as a town hall. The com- 
pletion of this work was delayed for some years, as the 
Revolution occupied the thoughts of the people, but in 
1781 provisions and tools were bought for the workhouse, 
including "2 large wheels, 2 small ones, 2 pair of wool 
cards, sheep's wool, flax, and a thousand weight of old 
junk." After this, the "Master of the Workhouse" was 
a regular town officer for some years, Lot Haskell and 
Deacon Seth Dexter being two of those who held this 
position. 

In 1792 a new State law was passed, respecting the 
care of the poor of the towns and State. After this the 
workhouse was given up, and the poor were boarded in 
families until 1819, when a poorhouse was provided. 



After the Revolution 145 

With the giving up of the workhouse, the old meeting- 
house was again remodeled. The chimney was taken 
down, the partition removed, and the whole seated as a 
town house. In 1811 the old building was taken down, 
and some of the best of its timbers were used in the con- 
struction of a new town house, built that year in the middle 
of the Common. The town house of 1811 was a low, 
square building, with a pyramidal roof and rising tiers of 
seats. Old people of to-day recall with interest scenes on 
town-meeting days, when the "Breadman" from Ware- 
ham was always on hand, selling rusk, — a kind of bun 
with raisins on top, — while the countrymen, coming up, 
one by one, each shook from his pocket the folds of a 
clean, red bandanna, and went on his way with one or 
more of these dainties folded within it. 

Near the middle of the nineteenth century, the town 
house was the scene of some lively town meetings, as 
questions arose which led, a few years later, to the dis- 
memberment of the town itself. 

In 1892, when the new Town and Library building was 
erected on Rochester Common, the old town house of 
1811, with a change of roof, was made into a cranberry 
house, which stands to-day on the Pratt cranberry bog. 
When the building was removed, Mr. John S. Ryder 
found, under one of its timbers, as a supporting block, 
the capital of an ancient pillar that had been a support 
for the gallery in the old meeting-house of 1717. 

The migratory school seems to have been continued in 
Rochester for some time after the Revolution. In 1789 
a law was passed in Massachusetts, allowing towns to 
divide themselves into school districts, each having a 
"prudential committee-man," who should have the care 



146 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

of the school property and "contract with the teacher." 
Horance Mann afterwards declared this district school law 
to be one of the most pernicious ever passed. It repre- 
sented democracy carried to its lowest terms, and was 
opposed to a large public spirit. Each district had its 
tiny political excitements, and too frequently the passport 
to employment as a teacher was relationship to the pru- 
dential committee. Yet the old district school had its 
redeeming and picturesque features and under a good 
teacher excellent work was often done. 

In 1799 Rochester voted to adopt the district system, 
and divided itself into sixteen school districts, each of 
which was entitled to have three months of school once in 
two years. The districts were still named as belonging 
to the "Four Quarters" of the town. "The Town 
Quarter," Sniptuit, Mattapoisett, and Sippican con- 
tinued to be the town " quarters " until the division of the 
towns took place in the middle of the nineteenth century. 

In 1820-22 a vigorous effort to improve the schools was 
made. The districts were re-divided; twenty-one being 
now laid out. It was voted that one half the money for 
schools should be divided equally among the districts, 
the other half being divided according to the proportion 
of scholars. A committee of three (serving without pay), 
in addition to the selectmen and the ministers of the 
town, was appointed to visit the schools, this committee 
consisting of Abraham Holmes, Isaac Thompson and 
Philip Crandon. 

In 1824 it was voted to "adopt a measure respecting 
town schools passed by the legislature," to the effect that 
" in any town having less than 5000 inhabitants, and now 
required by law to be provided with a Master or Masters 




H 
H 

O 



After the Revolution 147 

instructed in the Latin and Greek tongues, might instead 
be provided with a teacher or teachers well qualified to 
instruct youth in orthography, reading, writing, arith- 
metic, English grammar, geography, and good behavior." 

In 1828 a protest was entered against paying the wages 
of certain teachers who had been engaged by prudential 
committees without requisite certificates as to their quali- 
fications. 

In 1832 the appropriation for schools was raised to 
$1200, and in 1834 it was voted that the school committee 
should consist of three persons only: Jonathan Bigelow, 
Charles J. Holmes, and Thomas Robbins being the ones 
chosen. In 1835 an elaborate report on schools was made 
and it was voted to increase the appropriation by $200; 
one of the arguments presented being that by this means 
the town would receive a larger proportion of a State 
fund that could be drawn upon for schools. 

We know from Dr. Robbins's diary, that during his 
service on the school committee he spent much time in 
visiting the schools and doing what he could for their 
improvement, and the same was doubtless true of the 
other ministers of the town who at various times served 
on the school committee. 

During the continuance of the district system some 
private schools were opened to supplement these lower 
schools. The first "Academy" in Rochester was a pri- 
vate school, opened in North Rochester in 1795 by Rev. 
Calvin Chaddock, who was an accomplished teacher; 
but this came to an end with the close of Mr. Chaddock's 
pastorate a few years later. Through the efforts of Rev. 
Jonathan Bigelow, George Bonney and others, an academy 
was opened at Rochester Center in 1839, which was for 



148 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

years an important institution, having among its pre- 
ceptors Rev. Andrew Bigelow, Rev. Henry M. Dexter, 
and Mr. Charles P. Rugg, afterwards superintendent of 
schools in New Bedford. The large boarding-house of 
this institution, afterwards burned, was kept for years by 
Mr. Robert C. Randall on the corner opposite the one 
where the old Dr. Haskell house was burned at a later date. 

An academy was also opened at Mattapoisett about 
1856, the building of which was afterwards used for the 
Barstow High School. A school corporation was also 
formed in Sippican, and a private school was opened, but 
not definitely organized as an Academy. (Tabor Acad- 
emy was not opened until 1877.) 

In 1850 the district system was still in operation, and 
no attempts at grading the schools were made until after 
the town was divided. 

The representative from Rochester to the General 
Court at Boston during the Revolution was Lieut.-Col. 
Ebenezer White. When the State constitution went into 
effect in 1780, Colonel White became the first representa- 
tive under the new frame of government, and continued 
to hold this office for some years. 

During many years the town had two representatives 
in the State legislature, sometimes three, and once as many 
as four. The names of those who were Rochester Repre- 
sentatives under the State Constitution before 1857 are as 
follows : 

Ebenezer White, Nathaniel Hammond, Abraham 
Holmes, Nathaniel Sprague, Nathan Willis, Elisha 
Ruggles, Gideon Barstow, Jr., Rev. Calvin Chaddock, 
Caleb Briggs, Jesse Haskell, Thomas Bassett, Elijah 
Willis, Samuel Winslow, Charles J. Holmes, Joseph 



After the Revolution 149 

Meigs, Philip Crandon, Wilson Barstow, George King, 
Eben Holmes, Amittai B. Hammond, Theophilus King, 
Malachi Ellis, Benjamin Barstow, 2d, Zaccheus M. Bar- 
stow, Joseph Hammett, William Sears, James H. Clark, 
Isaac Smith, Samuel Sturtevant, Jr., James Ruggles, Silas 
B. Allen, Loring Meigs, George Bonney, Nathan Cannon, 
Nathan S. Clark, Solomon K. Eaton, John H. Clark, 
John A. Le Baron, Thomas Ellis, G. B. Blackmer. 

A century ago law schools had not been organized in 
the universities, and young lawyers were prepared for 
their profession in the office of some older lawyer, an 
arrangement which in some cases took on the character 
of a small law school. Such a "Law School" was held 
for some years at the office of Abraham Holmes, where a 
considerable number of well-known lawyers were trained. 
The office stood in " The Flatiron Piece," a grassy tri- 
angle in front of Fcaring's store (then the Bonney store), 
and had the sign "A. Holmes, Office." It is related that 
a wag standing in front of it once read the sign aloud, as 
follows : " A-hol-mess-of-ice." 

One of the students in this law school was Charles J. 
Holmes, Sr., the son of Abraham Holmes, who became a 
prominent lawyer, first in Rochester, later in Taunton 
and Fall River. In the closing years of the nineteenth 
century Charles J. Holmes, Jr., lawyer and banker, came 
back from Fall River to spend his closing years in the 
scenes where his childhood had been passed. 

The office of Charles J. Holmes, Sr., in Rochester, was 
often visited by leading lawyers from other localities, one 
of these being Daniel Webster. The late Rufus Savery 
used to recall an incident of his boyhood in which Daniel 
Webster, driving over from Marshfield, to hold court in 



150 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Rochester, met him on the street and stopped to talk with 
him, giving him some good advice, to the effect that 
whatever he undertook he must always do it well. 

Rochester was then one of the towns in Plymouth 
County in which Probate Courts were regularly held. 
There were also many sessions of Justices Courts. A vote 
of the First Parish in 1806 is on record, however, which 
refuses to "allow any more Courts to be held in the 
meetinghouse." 

The military interest kindled by the Revolution did not 
die out when peace was declared. Militia companies 
continued to exist, and new ones were organized. In 
1815 we are told that "Rochester in military affairs is 
annexed to the fourth regiment, fifth division. It fur- 
nished three companies and part of a troop " (i.e., a com- 
pany of cavalry). Jesse Haskell was at one time a com- 
missioned officer in the cavalry company of Rochester. 

The annual muster held on the old Rochester Muster 
Field was for many years an occasion of great importance. 
The " Muster Field " was apparently the same lot of land 
that had been set apart by the town of Rochester in 1697 
as a "Training Field." It was a large open lot for many 
years, but is now occupied in part by the residence of Mr. 
William Thorpe. The annual "Muster" filled for the 
community something of the same place that was taken 
by the county "cattle shows" of the next generation. 
Here military companies, with smooth-bore guns and 
improvised uniforms, were gathered from all parts of Old 
Rochester and the towns around, and performed gyrations 
to the music of " Yankee Doodle " and " Hail Columbia," 
while the hucksters in the stalls regaled the crowds of 
spectators with cider and popcorn. 



After the Revolution 151 

The War of 1812 was not approved of in Massachusetts, 
the people not being in sympathy with the governmental 
actions that led to it, and few chose to enter the general 
service. But when in June, 1814, two British vessels, 
the Superb and the gun-brig Nimrod, appeared in Buz- 
zard's Bay, the people became aroused. The selectmen 
of New Bedford wrote to the Attorney-General, asking 
for 560 men to protect the coasts of New Bedford, Dart- 
mouth and Westport, which "had shipping to the value 
of one and a half million of dollars." 

The Nimrod came as far as Charles's Neck, and sent 
some barges to Wareham, whose crews burned a few 
houses in that village, causing great excitement, in Roches- 
ter as well as in Wareham itself. A committee of safety 
was now appointed, consisting of William LeBaron, Jo- 
seph Meigs, Rowland Luce, Timothy Killer, and Abraham 
Holmes, and application was made to the Major-General 
of Militia for 125 soldiers to be drafted for the defense of 
the town, and for half a company of artillery for the same 
purpose. It is not clear that this whole force was pro- 
vided; but two small companies of Rochester men were 
stationed at the harbors as a coast defense. One of these, 
called a Sergeant's Guard, consisted of twenty-nine men, 
commanded by Jonathan Vaughn, Ensign, and Thomas 
Ashley, Sergeant. It was on duty in June and July. 
Another company, called on the rolls "Ensign's Guard," 
had twenty-seven men, with Moses Mendall as Ensign, 
and was on duty in September and October. Other 
Rochester men were in two New Bedford companies 
serving at Fairhaven during the same season. 

New military companies continued to be formed in 
Rochester at various times during the first half of the 



152 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

nineteenth century. But after the Civil War had taxed 
to the utmost the military energies of the people, and 
filled their minds with the horror of warfare, the interest 
in these local military practices finally died out. 

Among the old militia companies was a company of 
light infantry organized June 18, 1825, for home safety. 

The Fourth Plymouth regiment of militia, when re- 
organized in 1826, had the following officers from Roches- 
ter: David Hathaway, Colonel; Ebenezer Barrows, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel; John H. Clark, Ensign; Dr. Thomas E. 
Gage, Adjutant. 

In 1842 a company was formed in Mattapoisett called 
the Mattapoisett Guards, of which R. L. Barstow and 
Loring Meigs were at different times captain. Captain 
Barstow was then transferred to the staff of Brigadier- 
General Dunham for four years, and the Mattapoisett 
Guards were dissolved. Later Captain Barstow was 
commander of the Rochester Light Infantry for two years, 
and still later was Major of the Ninth Massachusetts 
Regiment, having in all a military service of about eighteen 
years. 

In the exciting political campaign of 1840 (the Log 
Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign), Rochester was very 
enthusiastic on the Whig side, and a tall flagstaff called a 
"Liberty Pole" was erected by the town on Rochester 
Common nearly on the site of the present flagstaff. A 
few years later it was blown down during a heavy gale. 
In Mattapoisett village the enthusiasm was still greater 
and a Log Cabin was provided, which stood to the west of 
the cooper shop of the late Prince Bolles, on land now 
owned by R. L. Barstow. This structure was ninety feet 
in length, and was later used for theatrical purposes. 



After the Revolution 153 

In the closing years of the eighteenth century, Minister 
Moore of the First Church of Rochester made some notes 
regarding health conditions in that precinct, which repre- 
sent probably the general town conditions. 

He says: 

" During the 30 years of my ministry in Rochester First 
Church, there have died of all ages and sexes (including 
those that were killed in the late war, and came to their 
end by accidents) 376 persons. About a quarter part of 
sd number died of consumptive ails and these chiefly 
young women from 16 to 26 yrs of age." 

Regarding longevity, Mr. Moore writes: 

" Rather more than a fifth part lived to 70 & upwards, 
— a ninth part to 80, nearly a 50th part to upwards of 90. 
This precinct has connected to it an average of about 160 
families." 

In 1801 the town of Rochester voted to provide a hos- 
pital for the purpose of "inoculating for and having the 
small pox." Dr. James Foster was authorized to inocu- 
late for the much-dreaded disease. Certain temporary 
provisions were made as to houses to be used, but Dr. 
Foster agreed to build a house for the purpose, which was 
to be erected on an island in a piece of salt-marsh bought 
by him. Whether this hospital was really erected is not 
recorded. 

In 1816 a disease called spotted fever broke out in 
Mattapoisett, and made fearful ravages in that village 
and in the western part of Rochester. Sixty-one heads 
of families were stricken. The fever plague stopped in 
its easterly course about a mile west from Rochester 
Center, at the home of Charles Sturtevant, who died with 
it. Dr. Mann of Boston was sent for to aid in controlling 



154 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

the situation, and the measures which he adopted seem 
to have been finally effective. 

A writer in the Massachusetts Historical Collection has 
said of this epidemic: 

"A mortal fever prevailed in Rochester, in the early 
part of 1816. It spread from Fair Haven, where it ap- 
peared in Sept. last. 

"Fifty deaths arc stated to have occurred in its bills of 
mortality, since February; but the fever is now abating, 
in the month of May. Near 200 deaths are stated in 
the circle of contagion; say Fair Haven, Rochester, east 
of Freetown and borders, since Sept. 23, 1815, to May 
1816." 

1832 was the cholera year. The whole country was 
alarmed and a "colera meeting" was held in Rochester. 
A committee of twenty-seven was appointed to constitute, 
with the selectmen, a committee of health, establish 
quarantine regulations, and provide a place where per- 
sons could be taken care of " in case of malignant disease." 
But cholera did not come to Rochester, and the duties of 
this committee were probably light. 

The winter of 1840-41 was a time of much sickness in 
Mattapoisett, and it seems probable that the unhealthful- 
ness of the season extended to the other communities as 
well. The exact nature of the epidemic, which was 
evidently contagious, is not given. Perhaps the best idea 
of the conditions of that winter can be gained from Dr. 
Robbins's diary entries regarding Mattapoisett. 

1841 

Jan. 2. There are many new cases of the epidemic. 
Visited many sick and distressed families. 



After the Revolution 155 

Feb. 14. Spoke on the subject of the late deaths. For 
three weeks there have been three in each week. 

Feb. 28. It is a solemn and distressing time with us. 
There were seventeen deaths in Mattapoisett in Novem- 
ber and December; and in January and February the 
same number, seventeen. 

Mar. 6. There have been four deaths this week. 

Mar. 28. At evening had a meeting of prayer 
and humiliation in the meetinghouse in view of the 
divine judgments upon us. Oh that we may find 
help! 

Apr. 2. We have new cases. The disease is evidently 
contagious. 

Apr. 10. Two physicians are here from Bedford. 

On September 28, 1815, there occurred a great gale, 
followed by a heavy tide on the Buzzard's Bay shores, 
which did much damage to all the towns of the region and 
came to be known as the "September Hurricane." Of 
this storm it is said: 

" The total loss in Rochester is stated at $50,000. The 
tide there rose fourteen feet above low water mark, and 
four feet higher than ever known there before; the ordi- 
nary tides being about six feet. Vessels floated from the 
stocks, rope walks, stores and houses were destroyed and 
a great amount of salt lost." 

In Mattapoisett the meeting-house at Hammondtown 
was partly destroyed, and had to be taken down. The 
Bethuel Landers house, now occupied as a summer cot- 
tage by J. Lewis Stackpole, Jr., was taken from its foun- 
dations, turned around in the street, and the occupants 
were removed in boats. 

The damage to the salt industry was far more than was 



156 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

occasioned by the loss of the salt merely. The works 
themselves were largely swept away by the tide and the 
high winds. 

Some of the anecdotes relating to this gale that have 
been preserved are as follows: 

" A salt house from Sippican, partly filled with salt, held 
its position till the tide had risen Dearly to the roof, when 
it was overset and floated across the bay. Its ruins were 
found in the woods at Wareham." 

"Another lot of salt works floated several miles un- 
broken, but landed on a craggy shore and fell to pieces on 
the rocks. The salt house, however, settled on some stones 
that held it in perfect shape, and it was later launched 
like a vessel and carried back to the original position. 
The place where it was grounded was about nine feet 
above the level of common high tides." 

" Theophilus Pease, of Rochester, aged seventy-three, 
having repaired to a small island at Mattapoisett during 
the gale, to preserve some hay, soon saw his dangerous 
situation. Having a pitchfork in his hand, and a line in 
his pocket, he lashed the fork across the limbs of a tree, 
which he selected, and stood upon it about six hours, 
partly in the water, until the tide ebbed. There were 
only three or four trees on the island, all of which were 
carried away by the flood, but the one he selected; a re- 
markable instance of preservation." 

" A store containing West India goods, situated at 
Great Neck, was floated entire to Wareham, perhaps 
a mile, where it remained with its goods in perfect 
preservation." 

From an article in the Massachusetts Historical Col- 
lections, by Rev. Ezra S. Goodwin, of Sandwich, some 



After the Revolution 157 

further knowledge of this great storm and its effects may 
be gathered, as follows: 

The injury in Buzzard's Bay was much greater than in 
Vineyard Sound. The highest water in Buzzards Bay 
occurred about 11 h. 40 rain., three hours later than at 
Barnstable Bay. 

Coasting vessels were scattered about, and mostly 
driven high on shore. Some of them floated into the 
forest. One lodged among the trees in an upright posi- 
tion and was later relaunched. 

The spray while the tide was rising resembled a driv- 
ing snowstorm. Grass was entirely killed, not a green 
blade to be seen. The leaves of the trees appeared 
as if they had been scorched. Several cedar swamps 
perished from the salt water. Most of the bushes 
perished also, but one or two species of laurel, the 
common bayberry and some swamp whortleberries sur- 
vived. Winter rye had been sown in August. Rye 
was resown in some of the fields but the original crop 
had perished. 

The wells and watering places for cattle were filled with 
sea-water, and fresh water was a thing of price. 

Little rain had fallen for some time, and the soil was 
very dry. Much of the salt water therefore penetrated the 
earth and saturated it with the salt, which also crystallized 
along the shore. 

Some wells near the sea had formerly risen and fallen 
with the tide and yet remained fresh. They now changed 
their habit. The water remained at a fixed height and 
was also salt. The saltness of the wells continued till 
November. After the snow of winter dissolved the salt 
wells became fresh. The freshness came back suddenly. 



158 Mattapoisctt and Old Rochester 

After a time of dry weather they grew salt again, but not 
so bad as before. Some did not wholly recover until the 
spring of 1818. 

There was a curious and lasting effect on the land. 
In 1816 some of the overflowed fields were planted with 
oats and had a larger crop than ever before. Indian corn 
also flourished, planted as a spring crop. The salt seems 
to have acted in some cases like a manure. But in 1817 
clover decreased and in 1818 almost disappeared. Mosses 
also were destroyed, and wild grass came in where the 
cultivated grass had been. Some good effects of the 
storm were seen, but not enough to compensate for 
the property destroyed. 

In the middle years of the firs! half of the nineteenth 
century temperance matters were prominent all over the 
United States. A vigorous warfare was made against 
"New England rum" and other spirituous liquors, which 
heretofore had been in general use. A temperance 
crusade known as " The Washingtonian Movement " 
spread over the country, and total abstinence societies 
were everywhere formed. 

In 1830 the town of Rochester sent a petition to the 
legislature to make a law authorizing the County Com- 
missioners or the selectmen of the towns to license tavern 
keepers, giving them all the usual rights and duties of 
this office, except the right to sell spirituous liquors. 
A little later a second petition was presented, after an 
elaborate report (which is duly recorded in the town 
book) in which the town's committee grew eloquent in 
regard to "the wife's streaming eyes over her naked 
and supperless children," and declared that "Bank- 
ing Corporations, Turnpike Roads, Canals, and even 



After the Revolution 159 

Railroads sink into insignificance beside this important 
subject." 

It is impossible to describe either the condition or the 
growth of Old Rochester in the first half of the nineteenth 
century without entering somewhat fully upon the sub- 
ject of the maritime industries, which early in the century 
took on new lines of development in the seaside villages, 
and (especially in Mattapoisett) gave rapid growth and 
a new chapter of local history, which had most important 
consequences in the later town history. The story of 
these industries, however, and of their historic effects 
requires a full chapter, to be given later. 

In 1840 a book called Massachusetts Historical Col- 
lections was published by John Warner Barber, which 
contains much historic and descriptive matter regarding 
the Massachusetts towns of that date. Mr. Barber was 
a personal friend of Dr. Robbins, whom he visited twice 
while getting the material for his collections. In this 
book he gives the population of Rochester as 3570 persons, 
and says that "about 60 sail of merchant and coasting 
vessels are owned in the town;" that "Mattapoisett vil- 
lage contains about 100 dwelling houses," and is "the 
principal village of Rochester," and that "the leading 
business of Sippican is the manufacture of salt." 

In 1854 the Fairhaven branch of the Old Colony Rail- 
road was built, which passed through Marion and Mat- 
tapoisett, but left the old Town Quarter outside its line of 
travel; — a fact which has had much to do with the rela- 
tive growth of the Old Rochester villages since that date. 

The discovery of gold in California sent a thrill of ex- 
citement over the country. Many persons in Old Roches- 
ter were touched with the "gold fever," and joined the 



1G0 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

crowds that from all over the world were eagerly pressing 
into California. Some of the Rochester men joined hands 
that from New Bedford and Fairhaven were fitting oul 
vessels to carry the gold seekers oil their quest And 
in Mattapoisett village two vessels, the Oscar and the 
Mt. Vernon, were equipped and sent around Cape Horn 
to the new land of promise. The first was the brig Oscar, 
under Captain Dornie, with seventy men from Matta- 
poisett and the vicinity. They had a narrow escape 
soon after starting, from an encounter with a hurricane, 
in which the vessel was blown '' on her beam ends." But 
she finally righted herself and the party went on. Later 
the Mount Vcmou sailed. 

Among those now living in Mattapoisett who went in 
these expeditions, are Caleb Dexter, Thomas Randall, 
and Thomas Luce; also Alden Rounseville, Jr., now a 
mill-owner at Rochester. 

Six Rochester men also joined the New Bedford Com- 
pany that sailed in the Mayflower: James F. Dexter, James 
Smellie, Freeman B. Howes, Robert C. Randall, Robert 
C. Randall, Jr., Dr. Ezra Thompson. 

Of these " Forty Niners," as they came to be called, 
some returned after some months or years, having attained 
a fair degree of success in the undertaking; and now they 
delight to tell over to younger listeners tales of these 
eventful days of '49. Those who came back, singly or in 
groups, mostly crossed the Isthmus of Panama, with its 
dangerous heat and malarial influence. Some of those 
who started home with eager hearts fell victims to those 
climatic conditions, and their bones lie buried in that 
tropical soil. Some reached home penniless and with 
constitutions ruined for life. Some elected to stay 



After the Revolution 161 

in California and never revisited the land of their 
fathers. 

Fifty-eight years have passed since then. Two hun- 
dred and twenty-eight years have gone by since the thirty 
proprietors purchased these lands of the Old Colony 
Court for the "seating of a township," and to provide 
a home for themselves and their posterity. 

The general features of the region are the same. The 
contour of the long shore is unaltered, and the larger 
part of the lands of the interior are still covered with a 
growth of forest. 

The pine groves still give forth their fragrance, yet no 
one "milks the pine trees," nor makes tar from their 
flowing sap. The sawmills keep up a winter activity at 
various mill-ponds; and a few steam mills have added an 
all the year round enterprise to the box-board industry in 
various localities. But the trip-hammer and the puddling 
furnace of the old iron mills long ago disappeared, and 
the iron ore that remains is left undisturbed at the bottom 
of the lake beds. 

The "craneberry" is still "a plenteous production" 
and is sent to-day to even a wider "vicinage" than 
Boston. 

Many of the old stone walls are still standing, in more 
or less stable condition, " pathetic monuments of vanished 
men"; although some have been ground up to make the 
macadam roadways that thread the Old Rochester terri- 
tory. But the lover of country life will often turn aside 
from these modern highways into the genuine country 
roadways, the natural "dirt-roads" of the olden time, 
with their inconsequent windings and changing blos- 
soming hedgerows, 



1G2 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

" Winding as roads will 
Here to a cottage, and there to a mill." 

Here or there along these old roadways one will see 
some unpainted cottage, with wide chimney and an old 
well-sweep, and with lilacs or cinnamon roses about the 
door. Much that is ancient is still left in the Old Roches- 
ter territory, and there is folk-lore still to be gathered. 
For traditions cling to an old town, and in place of the two 
or three haunted houses, which the older generations 
named as such, "All houses wherein men have lived 
and died are haunted houses." But the spirit of the 
modern age has also touched all parts of the region. Not 
only in the seaside villages, where the beautiful new 
homes of summer residents are rapidly multiplying, but 
in other parts of the old town new dwellings are erected, 
and many of the oldest houses show modern changes that 
tell that the life-blood of the community is active ami 
flowing. 

Instead of depending on the old "way-carriage" of 
Dr. Robbins's time, the people take the frequent electrics 
to New Bedford. The rural delivery carries the mail 
to the remotest country farmhouse. The boys and 
girls come to the central schoolhouses on their bicycle 
steeds, or by transportation furnished at public expense; 
while the village and country matrons "pass the time of 
day" with their neighbors through the telephone, and 
business men in their country homes keep in touch with 
their city offices through the same modern channel. 

Wareham has itself become an old town. The next 
generation of its people will be ready to celebrate the 
bicentennial of their own township anniversary. Yet 
once in a while the descendants of the Old Rochester 



— »H 

> II ■ 

r 




71 



After the Revolution 163 

settlers in the western villages of Wareham call to mind 
the fact that for sixty years they were sharers with these 
neighboring towns in the local associations of the older 
town that was born in 1679. 

In Marion and Mattapoisett something of the old 
energy, enthusiasm, and pathos have departed that be- 
longed to the old seafaring days. The windmills are 
gone from these shores, and a few crane-beams, laid up 
perhaps as a relic in some dry nook, are all that can now 
be found of the great salt-works that at many points 
were conspicuous objects along the water front. The 
village of Sippican began to drop something of its mari- 
time character soon after it laid aside its sibilant old 
Indian name. Where it was once agreed that the village 
private school "shall hail" as "Sippican Academy," the 
modern "Tabor Academy" offers higher education to 
the youth of the surrounding community. 

The harbors are still the scene of life and activity 
but the power-boat, the yacht, the catbdat, and other 
pleasure craft, have taken the place of the whaleships 
and vessels of maritime commerce. 

The part of Old Rochester that still bears her name, 
having relinquished her claim to the water front and to 
the honors of a seaport town, is now, to use the words of 
William Root Bliss, the historian of Wareham, "an in- 
land farm, untouched by railway trains." No Probate 
Courts are nowadays held on Rochester Green to invite 
the visits of distinguished members of the Massachusetts 
Bar, or the protests of pious souls against such a secular 
use of the parish meeting-house. At the new town hall 
on Rochester Common, town business is still transacted, 
but the new building does not shelter such a large gather- 



1C4 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

ing of voters, nor do its walls ring with such stirring 
debates as were heard in the low-roofed building of the 
olden time. 

But Rochester of to-day is still " an original corporation 
of the Old Colony," with a continuous existence reaching 
back to 1686. It inherits the corporate name and the 
town records of Rochester of the past. Yet the whole 
Rochester territory is still, to some extent, united in its 
local interests. The old precincts thai were carved out 
of this territory are allied in conference relations among 
their churches, and in other social and religious associa- 
tions. The automobiles speed daily over the fifteen-mile 
road that like a connecting cord binds in close proximity 
the three towns of Roc luster, Marion, and Mattapoisett, 
which for a century and three quarters held equal partner- 
ship in the older Rochester. Even the herring fishery is 
still held in common ownership, and though it is the 
subject of triple town legislation, it remains a common 
interest. All have rights also in the clams, the scallops, 
the quahaugs, and other fish along Old Rochester shores. 

July 22, 1879, in Handy 's Grove, in Marion, near the 
Rochester line, the people of the Old Rochester territory 
joined to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the settle- 
ment of all these towns. SLx thousand people were in 
attendance, and under the whispering pines the day was 
given to history and reminiscence, to feasting and enjoy- 
ment. In future anniversaries of this old event the 
people of these now separate towns will ever feel an 
equal degree of personal share and interest. 

On account of the community of origin something of 
liistoric unity must always exist. Similar natural sur- 
roundings, a common ancestry, a common past " rich 



After the Revolution 165 

with the spoils of time," united with the changing con- 
ditions and vicissitudes of modern life, are giving, and 
must continue to give, to the towns of the Old Rochester 
region an inheritance 

" Distinct as the billows yet one as the Sea " 

where 

" The Sounding unifies all." 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DIVISION OF THE TOWN 

ROCHESTER TOWN, even after the eastern por- 
tion was annexed to Ware ham, comprised an ex- 
tended territory. With the growth of maritime industry 
the shore villages increased largely in population and 
wealth, as compared with the agricultural sections of the 
town. Sippican was not so far from the old town -house 
at the Center, but Mattapoisett was distant some six 
miles and North Rochester was about equally far away. 
The inhabitants around Snippatuit Pond journeyed, as 
now, by Vaughn's Hill to Rochester Common to participate 
in the town's business, while those from Mattapoisett 
traveled the long route back from the shore. 

The old Mattapoisett way led up over " Towser's Neck" 
and came into the "Country Road" above Haskell's 
mills; but on March 2, 1772, the town had voted, "That 
the way to mattepoiset from Town be so altered from 
where it Now Goes by the old Haunted House (so called) 
as to Continue Dartmouth Road till it Comes Near Great 
Rock, thence to Turn Southerly on East Side thereof & 
Continue on a Streight Line till it Enters Mattepoisett 
way in Such a Place as shall be most Convenient for same 
to be Laid & to be opened, Continued, & amended with- 
out any costs to the Town, till it is Made as Good as the 
way Used; & all ways to Continue in this place at the 




Mattapoisett Village, 1856 
From Waiting's Map of Rochester Town 



The Division of the Town 167 

Costs of mr Benja. Hatch, His Heirs & assigns: except 
that of mending the Way." And thereafter the voters of 
" Mattapoisett Quarter" went north by the present way 
through the Church neighborhood, and by the "Wheel 
of Fortune," to help determine the "town's mind." For 
a century or more increasing numbers traveled, without 
open protest, the long route to the town-house. 

About the second Sabbath in February, 1837, the citi- 
zens found a warrant posted on the " Great Door" of their 
meeting-houses, issued by Philip Crandon, Amittai B. 
Hammond, and Earl C. Briggs, as selectmen, to Daniel 
Hall, constable, calling for a meeting for March 6th, next 
following: and requesting, in addition to ordinary matters, 
that action be taken on "Article 12th, To hear the request 
of the First Parish in said town in regard to moving the 
town-house, and repairing the same, and to pass any 
vote the town may see fit in regard to the whole matter." 
This request of the First Parish apparently started the 
controversy which only ended by the division into three 
towns twenty years later. 

Some citizens of Mattapoisett, seeing that the condition 
of the town-house apparently required expenditure, and 
well knowing that a large minority, at least, of the voters 
of the town dwelt in that quarter, thought it a fitting time 
to act; and secured the insertion in the warrant, at its end, 
after Article 15, an unnumbered article "To decide if the 
town will hold their town-meetings in Mattapoisett Village 
for the term of one year from the 20th of March, 1837." 

Never before in town had there been a proposition of 
this sort, and it naturally did not commend itself to the 
older citizens around Rochester Common. Abraham 
Holmes, then eighty-three years old, was much stirred 



168 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

up and joined with James Ruggles and other younger 
men of the "Town Quarter" to vigorously oppose any 
change from the established order of things. When the 
6th of March arrived, as Zebulon H. Thompson, late of 
Rochester, states: "The Mattapoisett people surprised 
us by arriving very early in barges, all the voters they 
could muster," and Esquire Holmes tells that "they had 
a flag, which they kept flying from the North side of the 
road, opposite Ruggles's store." 

The meeting being assembled, and the votes for modera- 
tor counted, " Amittai B. Hammond had all the votes but 
two that were polled, which was 49 only. He took his 
seat, then rose and called the town to order. Elijah 
Willis Esqre, Ebenezer Holmes, Nathaniel Haskell, and 
John W. Wing were appointed monitors." The first 
trial of strength came on the vote for town clerk. Rogers 
L. Barstow was re-elected by 275 votes, with 199 for 
James Ruggles. A. B. Hammond, Philip Crandon and 
Weston Allen were chosen selectmen, and they were in- 
structed " to appoint agents for the taking of the herring, 
and inspectors of Mattapoisett river for the year." Then 
the meeting voted: "When this meeting be adjourned 
it be adjourned to the First Christian Meeting-House in 
Mattapoisett Village, and that all the town-meetings be 
held in the Village of Mattapoisett for one year from the 
20th day of March, 1837." The meeting then took up 
Article 12, and voted, " That the First Parish in Roches- 
ter have the use of the town-house for public worship 
while they are building their new meeting-house." Voted, 
"To refer the request of the First Parish in regard to 
moving the town-house to the selectmen for them to do 
what they think proper." Appointed a committee to 



The Division of the Town 169 

investigate the accounts of the town farm. "James 
Ruggles Esq. then arose and gave notice that he protested 
against the vote in regard to holding town-meetings in 
the Village of Mattapoisett and should call for a recon- 
sideration of that vote at the adjournment of this meeting." 
Voted to establish the almshouse as a house of industry, 
and adjourned to meet at Mattapoisett the first Monday 
in April. 

Agreeable to adjournment, April 3, 1837, there was held, 
in the First Christian Meeting-House, the first town 
meeting ever assembled within the confines of Mattapoi- 
sett. The contingent from the "Town Quarter" was on 
hand early. Mr. Holmes writes, "After mature delibera- 
tion committees were appointed in each school-district to 
use every lawful measure to get a general turn out. The 
day arrived, the morning was flattering as to weather, 
but before noon it became squally. I was obliged to sit 
in a carriage for more than an hour before the door was 
opened." 

Deacon Hammond finally "called the town to order," the 
Rev. Thomas Robbins offered prayer, and the moderator 
then called for the votes for treasurer. Eight monitors 
were deemed necessary at this meeting, and Lot N. Jones, 
John Bassett, James Ruggles, George King, Wilson 
Barstow, David Hathaway, Doctor Haskell, and Philip 
Crandon were appointed. The people repaired out of 
the house, except the old men, and gave in their votes as 
they came in. Seth Haskell had 347 votes and was chosen 
treasurer. " The town then moved that the vote by which 
the town-meetings for one year from the 20th day of 
March last past were ordered to be holden at Mattapoisett 
be reconsidered, and that when this meeting adjourn it 



170 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

adjourn to Meet in the Town-House the 17th of April inst 
at one of the clock in the afternoon." "The moderator 
then rose and said that they should repair out of the house, 
except the old men, and all them that were in favor of 
reconsidering the vote last past in regard to holding town- 
meetings in Mattapoisett should form in a line on the 
north side of the street, and them that were not in favor 
of reconsiderating the said vote should form on the south 
side of said street. After counting the voters it was 
found that there was 299 in favor and 296 against recon- 
sidering the said vote, which left 3 majority in favor of 
adjourning the meeting, when adjourned, to the town- 
house." "Capt. John Atsatt then rose and gave notice 
to the town that he should call for a reconsideration at the 
adjournment of this meeting." The voters then accepted 
the reports of the committees on town farm and in regard 
to the surplus revenue, and adjourned "to Monday the 
17th of Apr. inst at one of the clock p.m." 

Dr. Robbins wrote: "April 3, Attended town-meeting, 
the first time, I suppose, ever held in this village. A great 
strife for the place. It was adjourned to meet next at 
the center of the town by a vote of 299 against 296. I 
spoke a little but did not vote. Mr. Bigelow was with me. 
It was an unpleasant affair." The day of adjournment, 
April 17, "Rode with company to Rochester by the par- 
ticular desire of my people, and attended town-meeting, 
and voted on the question of holding the meeting a part 
of the time in this village. The only time I have ever 
voted in a town-meeting since I was settled in the ministry." 

Dr. Robbins opened the meeting with prayer. The 
point in issue was acted on at once. Captain Atsatt 
handed in his motion for reconsideration and adjourn- 



The Division of the Town 171 

ment to Mattapoisett. "It was moved that the vote as 
above, should be taken by Yea and Nay." Mattapoisett 
was out in force; and Mr. Holmes says, "Our people 
provided crackers and cheese at the schoolhouse for the 
benefit of those who lived at a distance, for the intention 
was that the people should be on the ground before 12 
o'clock." "The vote," wrote Mr. Holmes, "could not 
be taken in the house, it was so crowded, and after various 
attempts had failed, the doors were shut upon the older 
men within the house, where ballots were then taken as 
they came out through the door; while the younger men 
were sent through the bars into Mr. Bonney's field, and 
their votes taken as they came out." "The ballots being 
read and counted, it was found that there were 324 Nays 
and 278 Yeas, which made a majority of 46 in favor of 
holding the town-meetings at the town-house." The 
town then voted, "To take so much of the surplus 
revenue as will pay for the poor-house farm in full & the 
Ballance to be invested in Bank Stock;" and adjourned 
one week to one p.m., April 24th. 

"When the day came," writes Mr. Holmes, "before 
nine o'clock a northeast storm (very cold) commenced, 
which increased in its fury, and by noon was pretty violent. 
It was even doubtful if the moderator and town-clerk 
would come. Very few people from the N. W. part of the 
town attended, but the people of Mattapoisett had a con- 
siderable turn out." Linus Snow, Joseph W. Church, 
Andrew Southworth, and Joshua Cushing were chosen 
Assessors, and two ballots were taken for a fifth without 
choice between Ebenezer Holmes and David Hathaway. 
" Capt. John Atsatt then rose, and made a motion to ad- 
journ this meeting to the Rev. Thomas Robbins's Meeting- 



172 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

House in the Village of Mattapoisett, Wednesday the 
26th day of April inst., at one of the o'clock in the after- 
noon, and the above motion was seconded by Elijah 
Willis, Esq. The town then called for a vote. After 
counting it was found that there were 141 in favor of 
adjourning and 125 against. The town then voted to ad- 
journ this meeting to Rev. Thomas Robbins's Meeting- 
House. There being 139 in favor of adjourning agreeable 
to Capt. J. Atsatt's motion, and 137 against it, which left 
a majority of 2 for adjournment. " 

Upon this, the "Town Quarter" apparently gave up 
the contest, and "having only one day to make prepara- 
tion for repairing to Mattapoisett," they decided, for the 
most part, to remain away. So, on April 26th, therefore, 
only about 240 voters assembled at the meeting-house 
at "the Green" in Mattapoisett, and chose George King 
and four of the town's ministers on the School Committee, 
— Thomas Robbins, Jonathan Bigelow, Oliver Cobb, and 
Theodore K. Taylor. The contest for the fifth assessor 
was settled by the absence of the voters from the " Town 
Quarter," so Ebenezer Holmes had 238 votes and Col. 
David Hathaway had 3. The usual year's business was 
performed, and adjournment made to July 10, at the same 
place. This appears to have been done simply for the 
joy of holding another meeting in Mattapoisett, for being 
assembled on that day, and " Deacon Mit " being absent, 
they chose Capt. Martin Snow moderator pro-tem; 
elected Levi Handy "wood-surveyor for Mattapoisett 
Quarter"; and then voted that "the meeting be dissolved." 
Thus ended the longest and most strenuous town meeting 
recorded in the annals of Rochester. 

At the meeting of March, 1838, warned to meet at the 



The Division of the Town 173 

town-house, votes were taken coming in the door, and for 
moderator, David Hathaway had 264 and Wilson Barstow 
145. The "Town-Quarter" also elected its town-clerk; 
James Ruggles, 264, and Walton N. Ellis, 137. For 
selectmen, Amittai B. Hammond had 302, Stephen 
Delano 251, and Joseph Purrington 362. Voted, "To 
take up Article 8, which they did in the following manner: 
Voted, that the town choose agents whose duty it shall be 
to call a meeting in each quarter of the town. These 
committees chosen by the different quarters shall confer 
together and make a report on the subject contained in said 
8th article at a town meeting called for that purpose only 
and expressly. The town then proceeded to the choice 
of said agents and made choice of Chas. J. Holmes, 
Esq., Wilson Barstow, Esq., Philip Crandon, Esq., and 
Capt. Jas. Delano." They took action as to herrings, 
elected school-committee, and adjourned for three weeks. 
At the adjournment, March 26, 1838, "A motion was 
submitted by Elijah Willis, seconded by Ansel Weeks and 
John Atsatt, to adjourn this meeting to the Universalist 
Meeting House in Mattapoisett, to Tuesday, the 27th 
inst, and to divide the house in order to settle the question. 
The town accordingly repaired out of doors, and those in 
favor of adjournment paraded the north side of the 
town house, and those against adjournment took the 
south side of said house. The moderator then proceeded 
to count both sides. He counted the south side first and 
found that there was opposed to the motion 206, in favor 
of it 147, leaving a majority against the motion of 59 
votes. The town then repaired to the house." They 
voted to proceed to choice of town officers, voted 
thanks to Philip Crandon, Esq., for his long service to the 



174 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

town ; and that horses, neat cattle and swine be restrained 
from running at large on the highways and Common; 
and then adjourned. 

The meeting "to be only and expressly" for hearing 
the report of the committee on Article 8, was warned 
for May 17, 1838. It elected Noah C. Perkins modera- 
tor, fixed a bounty on crows' heads; and then voted "that 
C. J. Holmes, Esq., read the report of the committee, 
which he did accordingly." " The committee to whom was 
referred the subject of future town meetings have considered 
the same and submit the following report: In territorial 
extent Rochester is among the largest towns in the com- 
monwealth. For a century after its settlement agricul- 
ture was almost the exclusive pursuit of its inhabitants, 
and the population was scattered with great equality 
over its surface. In later times this primitive occupation 
has given place to other modes of obtaining subsistence, 
and acquiring property. The fact has been that while 
population has remained nearly stationary in many parts 
of the town, in others flourishing villages have sprung up, 
and population greatly augmented. This increase has 
been principally about the seaboard, and is most strongly 
manifested in the southwest division of the town. 
Gathered around the harbor of Mattapoisett is an active 
and flourishing population numbering probably more 
than twelve hundred, a large proportion of whom find 
profitable occupation in the shipyards, the workshops, 
and other incidental employments of that enterprising 
village. This village is situated six miles from the accus- 
tomed place of holding town meetings, with limited means 
of conveyance. This distance of travel to the place of 
meeting is an inconvenience deeply felt and submitted to 



The Division of the Town 175 

with reluctance. Propositions have been made to lessen 
this cause of dissatisfaction by holding a portion of the 
meetings at that village, but it has not been considered 
that the relief which would thus be obtained would be 
more than counterbalanced by the greatly increased 
travel of many who are now as far, or nearly as far, re- 
moved from the place of meeting as the citizens of Matta- 
poisett. The evil complained of might be diminished by 
placing the town house nearer the center of travel, and 
opening roads for convenient access to it, and if this 
measure would be satisfactory as a permanent arrange- 
ment, the committee would recommend it to the favorable 
consideration of the town; but if it should be deemed 
inexpedient to adopt this mode of relief, and the opinion 
of those who feel that the existing state of things has so 
much more of evil than advantage that its longer con- 
tinuance may not be endured, and that the only remedy is 
by a change of public meetings, then the committee respect- 
fully recommend that measures for a division of the town 
be adopted. The committee have not arrived at this con- 
clusion but with difficulty and regret. They would not rec- 
ommend this painful remedy for evils imaginary or unreal, 
but to avoid those that seem to be certain, enduring, and 
more to be deprecated. A state of things that shall annually 
or oftener bring together the citizens, and array them against 
each other under local banners, with keenly excited feel- 
ings where mutual confidence and respect are made to give 
place to jealousy, distrust, crimination and reproach, is 
more to be deplored, while it endures, than separation ; in 
which, in all probability, after many struggles with alien- 
ated feelings and lasting enmity, it would terminate. — In 
behalf of the committee. David Hathaway, Chairman." 



176 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

It was then moved by Major Haskell, and his motion 
seconded by Captain Peckham, to dissolve this meeting, 
and the town thus voted. 

In the warrant of March, 1839, were the following: 
"Article 12th, To see if the town will re-consider all 
votes passed in said town at any previous meeting for 
holding town meetings at any place except the town house. 
13th, To see if the town will instruct the selectmen to 
warn town meeting one third of the time in Mattapoisett 
Village. 16th: To see if the town will petition the legis- 
lature of this session to divide said town of Rochester by 
setting off Mattapoisett and including or excluding that 
part known by the name of Sippican, as the town may 
think proper; if included, the line to run between the old 
landing, so called, and the lower village, and running 
westerly across Bartlett's Hill, so called, so in a westerly 
course to the dwelling house of Jeremiah Randall, thence 
westerly till you come to the dividing line between Roches- 
ter and Fairhaven. 

At the meeting March 6th, David Hathaway Esq., had 
43 votes, and was unanimously elected moderator. Voted 
to take up Article 12, and then return to Article 2. On 
motion of James Ruggles, seconded by Wm. C. Haskell, 
"The town then voted to reconsider all previous votes 
that had passed at any meeting held in said town for 
holding town meetings at any place except at the town 
house." Dr. Rcbbins writes, on this date, "Our people 
sent a remonstrance to the annual town-meeting instead 
of going"; and the record says, "A protest was then pre- 
sented by Ansel Weeks against the proceeding of this 
meeting, signed by several of the local voters of said town, 
and after he had read the same it was voted to receive it 



The Division of the Town 177 

and have it recorded with the records of the town, and here 
you have it as it reads: 'To the selectmen of the town 
of Rochester. The legal voters of said town assembled 
in town meeting under authority of warrant issued by two 
of the selectmen, under date of the 16th of February, 
1839, for a meeting to be held at this time and place, the 
undersigned legal voters of said town believe, inasmuch 
as there has been a previous town meeting which in- 
structed the selectmen to issue warrants for town meetings 
to be held in Mattapoisett Village for one year from Feb. 
1839, that this meeting is illegal, antirepublican, unjust 
and oppressive. We therefore solemnly protest against 
your proceedings, and that we shall not consider ourselves 
under any obligation to conform to or comply with any 
acts or doings of this meeting.' " This protest was ap- 
parently somewhat offensive to town clerk Ruggles, and 
it annoyed him to have to copy into the record the names 
of the "several local voters" who signed it, for there were 
248 besides John T. Atsatt and John Fitcher, and a con- 
siderable portion of these were from Sippican. 

Taking up Article 13, it was moved by C. J. Holmes, 
Esq., that the following motion be passed, namely: "In 
order that the difficulties respecting the place of holding 
town meetings in the town of Rochester, and other diffi- 
culties growing out of the agitation of that subject may be 
amicably adjusted, we agree that if the town meetings 
for the year next ensuing, after the close of the present 
March meeting, including the next annual meeting for 
the Choice of town officers, be holden at Mattapoisett, 
and that the town meetings for the two following years 
shall be holden at the town house, and that at the end 
of three years the town shall be divided upon fair and 



178 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

equitable terms in all respects. The moderator counted 
the ayes and nays upon the motion of C. J. Holmes and 
found that there were in favor of the motion 65, against 
it 62. So the motion was declared accepted." 

The town then passed a vote on motion of Charles J. 
Holmes, declaring that "the warrant issued by Seth Miller, 
Jr., Esq., called a meeting of the inhabitants of the town 
of Rochester to be holden at the Universalist meeting- 
house at Mattapoisett on the first day of February last 
past was at the least improvidently issued, as the con- 
tingency upon which a Justice of the Peace might issue 
a warrant did not exist, and that the vote passed at the 
meeting held under that warrant, respecting the place of 
holding town meetings in said town for the then ensuing 
year, imposes no obligation upon the selectmen to warn 
the meetings in conformity with that vote;" which 
seems to be a very reasonable proposition. After that 
the meeting was adjourned to April 1, 1839, at which 
time Dr. Robbins writes: "Rode to Rochester and 
attended town-meeting. Presented my school report. All 
our people were up and appointed two additional selectmen. 
There seems to be a growing alienation between this and 
the Town quarter of the town." The selectmen so chosen 
were Stephen C. Luce and Benjamin Barstow, 2d. Hav- 
ing done that, they adjourned to " Doctor Robbins's Meet- 
ing-House, one week from to-day at one of the o'clock:" 
at which adjournment they simply chose minor officers. 

The following year, 1840, it was voted "to warn all 
meetings in Mattapoisett until the Nov. Meeting, and that 
thereafter all meetings for one year be at the town-house." 
Pursuant to that vote, March 24, 1840, a meeting was 
held at the Congregational meeting-house in Mattapoisett, 






The Division of the Town 179 

under a warrant of two articles, to ballot on an amendment 
to the constitution and to fix the price of herring. 

In 1841 there was a small gathering of voters at the 
town-house, who elected officers and then voted, 61 to 58, 
"that the town hold their town meetings in Sippican 
Village for one year from the first of March next." Meet- 
ings continued to be at Sippican; as when on March 7, 1740, 
it was voted " for an Armory for the Mattapoisett Guards, 
to pay for Eaton Hall $50, and fitting up the same, which 
amounts to sixteen dollars and some cents." July 12th, 
there was another meeting at Sippican about the Great 
Neck road. 

March 13, 1843, met at the town-house, as also in April 
and in June. In November, however, there was a meeting 
at " the old Congregational meeting-house in Mattapoisett, 
which accepted Barstow street from Church to Hammond, 
and also "the continuation of Michonicks Street." In 
April, 1844, at the same place, when was a spirited con- 
test between Theophilus King and Abner Harlow for 
town clerk, resulting on the third ballot, King, 166, and 
Harlow, 152. By this time, however, the custom seemed 
to be established of holding sessions in the various " Quar- 
ters." November, 1844, and April, 1845, at the town- 
house, at which latter meeting it was voted " that the town 
offers Joseph Meigs $2,500 for the right to the privilege 
of the mill at Mattapoisett Weir, except what the town now 
owns, and take deed for the same." April, 1846, meeting 
at the "old Congregational Meeting-House, Sippican." 
November, '46, and April, '47, at the town-house, and 
November, '47 and April, '48, at Mattapoisett; then 
two meetings at the town-house, and two at Sippican. 

At one of the latter, held April 1, 1850, the condition of 



180 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

the old town-house apparently demanded action, for there 
were four articles in the warrant; to sell, to build anew, 
to repair, and "to see what the town would do in regard 
to the depredations made on the town-house." Only one 
of these articles was acted on: it was voted to repair. 
This warrant also called for action on the layout of a road 
leading from Cannonville corner in Mattapoisett to Neds 
Point lighthouse. At that meeting also A. B. Hammond 
was chosen a committee on town map. 

November 11, 1850, the citizens met "at the Methodist 
Meeting-House in North Rochester at 3 p.m.," and after 
action on other matters, voted unanimously " to hold all 
future meetings at the town-house in the Center of the 
Town." Accordingly, on January 20 following, at the 
town-house, was a special meeting at eleven a.m., the only 
article being, "To take into consideration the expediency 
of petitioning the legislature to set off Mattapoisett as a 
town by itself, also that said Mattapoisett when set off as a 
town may be annexed to Bristol County, and act thereon." 
The meeting voted that a committee of three from each 
quarter of the town be a committee to investigate the whole 
matter touching the second article of said warrant, and re- 
port at a future meeting. Motion made by Wilson Barstow. 
Voted that John LeBaron, Theo. King, Stephen C. Luce, 
Wm. Sears, be a committee to nominate the persons for 
said committee from each quarter of the town who forth- 
with reported the names of A. B. Hammond, Lemuel 
LeBaron, John H. Clark, Royal Smith, Thos. Ellis, 
Walton N. Ellis, Gilbert Hathaway, Jos. S. Luce, Geo. 
King, Linus Snow, and Josiah Bisbee. Voted that Geo. 
Bonney be added to the above committee at large. 

This committee reported at a meeting, on February 27, 



The Division of the Town 181 

that it was inexpedient to petition the legislature to divide 
the town. Anticipating, perhaps, such a report, various 
citizens had in the meantime acted and had petitioned the 
General Court: and the town at this meeting was by the 
warrant requested to act on both the petition of R. L. 
Barstow and others, and of Walton N. Ellis and others. 
Abner Harlow submitted a motion " that, in consideration 
of the great extent of territory of the town, and the great 
inconvenience the citizens in the southern part of the 
town are put to in attending town meetings, it is advisable, 
and the town believes it expedient, that the town of 
Rochester be divided,"— and that the new town or towns 
so incorporated should receive proper shares in the town 
property; which motion was voted in the affirmative. 
Voted against Dr. Ellis's petition, 48 to 96; approved the 
Barstow one, 100 to 56; and appointed Col. John H. 
Clark to be the town's agent at the legislative hearing. 

Three months later, April 7, 1851, the town assembled 
and voted, 197 to 127, in favor of the motion of Gilbert 
Hathaway. "Whereas the citizens of Sippican are to 
much expense and inconvenience in attending town 
meeting, and for other good and sufficient reasons, it is 
very desirable and necessary that the southeasterly por- 
tion of the town of Rochester be set off and incorporated 
into a new town on the basis of the petition of W. N. 
Ellis and others now before the legislature, praying for 
such new and municipal corporation." 

Voted also, on a motion submitted by Wilson Barstow, 
"that the town vote to a division of the town agreeably 
to the petition of R. L. Barstow and others;" 204 to 93. 
And the town was apparently in a hurry, for on motion 
of Gilbert Hathaway, it was ordered " that Col. John 



182 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

H. Clark, our representative to the general court, is hereby 
instructed to aid by his influence with the members of, 
and his vote in, the general court, to obtain the enactment 
of such acts by the present legislature; namely — Incor- 
porating two new towns from Rochester disposing and 
dividing the present town property and privileges, also the 
poor and insane, etc., as fully desired by the vote this day 
taken, a true copy of which together with the vote on the 
motion, the town clerk will make and attest the same, 
and see they are forwarded to Col. Clark by Capt. Matthew 
Mayhew of Mattapoisett, Tuesday morning, to-morrow, 
and Col. Clark to present the same to the first committee 
on towns in the afternoon of the same day." 

The legislature was not thus to be hurried, for it was 
the next General Court which, on May 14, 1852, passed 
an Act (Chapter 225) incorporating the town of Marion, 
to comprise the territory in the southeastern portion of 
Rochester, around Sippican Harbor. Why, for a name, 
the modern Marion was given in place of "soft-sliding 
sibilant Sippican," is not recorded. Some say the prefer- 
ence of Mrs. Elizabeth Tabor, the founder of Tabor 
Academy, had an influence. However that may be, 
Charles Neck, the Great Neck and Little Neck, the 
Great Hill and Minister's Rock, the Old Landing and 
Sippican, Rocky Nook and Happy Alley, lie to-day in 
Marion, the summer town on Buzzards Bay. 

By the legislative act town income and property was 
divided equably, and the new town preserved its interest 
in the " town mills " and in the alewive fisheries of Mat- 
tapoisett River; and the inhabitants of Rochester continued 
to hold their rights in the shell and scale fish from the 
shores, flats, and waters of its former territory. To settle 



The Division of the Town 183 

matters with Marion, the town of Rochester, June 9, 1852, 
appointed Rogers L. Barstow, Theophilus King, and Alden 
Rounseville a committee. Mr. Rounseville desiring to 
be excused, Wilson Barstow was chosen in his stead. At 
the same meeting Joseph W. Church was directed to fit 
up the vestry as an armory. 

In the four years from 1851 to 1855 town matters moved 
along very peacefully. A committee was authorized to 
sell the almshouse property; Amittai B. Hammond was 
sent to represent the town at the convention for amending 
the constitution; and Loring Meigs and Abner Harlow 
were directed "to meet the county commissioners to show 
cause why the road should not be built as by them laid 
out leading from Sippican to Mattapoisett." 

On the warrant for town-meeting dated December 27, 
1856, there appeared two articles for action toward an- 
other division of Old Rochester. Article 6, " To see what 
action the town will take in regard to a division of said 
town of Rochester." 7th: "To see what action the town 
will take in regard to chosing a committee from the north 
and from the south parts of said town who shall agree on 
the division line and all other matters pertaining to said 
division, and also be authorized to petition to the legisla- 
ture for an act to divide said town;" and also Article 8, 
" To see what action the town will take in regard to peti- 
tioning the legislature to be set off from Plymouth County 
and annexed to Bristol County." 

"Pursuant to the above warrant the town met and the 
meeting was opened at ten minutes past eleven a.m., the 
roads being so obstructed with snow the town clerk could 
not arrive at an earlier hour. The voters had repaired to 
the vestry under the Academy Hall and had organized 



184 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

the meeting by choosing Theophilus King Esq. as modera- 
tor. On the arrival of the town clerk it was supposed 
necessary to reorganize the meeting, whereupon the town 
clerk, with a few of the voters, forthwith repaired to the 
town hall, read the warrant, and on motion of Jas. Ruggles, 
Esq., the meeting was adjourned to the vestry. Mr. King 
was then chosen moderator. Mr. King then read the 
warrant again. Under Article 6, it was voted to take the 
sense of the meeting in regard to a division of the town. 
The vote for a division was unanimous. Voted that 
voters from the north and south parts of the town arrange 
themselves in different parts of the room and agree upon 
a committee, three from the north part, and three from 
the south part, whose business it should be to agree upon 
a division line. Members from the north part reported 
on T. King, Geo. Pierce and Thos. Ellis. Members from 
the south part reported the names of N. H. Rarstow, J. H. 
Holmes, Lemuel LeBaron. Voted to accept the above 
names as such committee. Mr. King wished to be ex- 
cused. Voted to excuse him. Voted that Alden Rounse- 
ville fill the place of Mr. King. Mr. Rounseville asked 
to be excused. Voted not to excuse him. Voted that 
if Mr. Barstow should decline on being notified of 
his appointment, that the committee be allowed to fill 
the vacancy/' "Voted to adjourn to one week from 
next Saturday at 10 a.m." "Nahtjm Leonard, Town 
Clerk." 

Saturday, February 7, 1857, the town met, and " Voted 
to take up the sixth article. " Lemuel LeBaron submitted 
a resolution of Mattapoisett citizens. "Voted to divide the 
resolution so as to act upon the matter of a line and of the 
division of property separately. Voted that the north 



The Division of the Town 185 

line of School District No. 10, as suggested in the Matta- 
poisett resolution, should be the dividing line. Voted the 
last part of the Mattapoisett resolution relating to the divi- 
sion of property according to the valuation be stricken 
out, that the property shall be divided justly. Then 
voted to lay the Mattapoisett resolution on the table. 
6th. Voted to adopt that part of LeBaron's motion 
that does not relate to division of property. Voted to 
chose a committee of three disinterested persons from out 
of town to agree upon conditions of a division. Voted 
that the chair appoint a committee to nominate a commit- 
tee as above. The chair appointed Jas. Ruggles, J. Clark 
and J. T. Atsatt. Mr. Atsatt, by request, was excused. 
R. L. Barstow was chosen in Atsatt's place, but was ex- 
cused by request. Voted to reconsider the foregoing 
vote. Voted that a division should be effected on these 
conditions: The engine should be valued at $1200.00, 
town hall and Sprague legacy should be given to the 
northern portion, and the remainder of the town property 
should be divided according to the valuation. The 
meeting thereupon voted to dissolve." 

Under a new warrant of March 24, 1857: "To see 
what action the town will take in regard to an order of 
notice served upon the town by the legislature now in 
session, in regard to the division of said town, and to do 
anything the town may think proper in relation to said 
division or anything they may think proper in regard to 
a former vote touching the division thereof or anything in 
relation thereto." Meeting was held March 31. "Voted 
to chose a committee to consist of three persons from the 
north and three from the south part of the town whose duty 
it shall be to draft a bill to be presented before the legislative 



186 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

committee. A committee of nomination selected by the 
moderator reported the following names as persons suit- 
able to compose this committee, namely: Loring Meigs, R. 
L. Barstow and Jonathan H. Holmes, Jas. Ruggles, David 
Lewis and Jos. W. Church. Voted to accept the report. 
Voted to instruct this committee to be governed by the 
previous action of the town touching this matter." 

Less than two months later, May 20th, the Great and 
General Court, by Chapter 202 of the Acts of 1857, 
enacted the division; stipulating, however, that the two 
sections should continue to vote together at state elections 
until the next decennial census, or until a new apportion- 
ment of representatives. As at the separation of Marion, 
mill and herring interests and rights to fish and dig shell- 
fish were continued as before. The town's vote that the 
fire engine be valued at $1200, and be taken by the south- 
ern portion; and that the Sprague legacy and the ancient 
town-house be kept by the part where the building stood, 
was included in the act. The line of division from Fair- 
haven across to Marion was defined ; and to accommodate 
Colonel Clark, who desired to retain his citizenship in the 
northern section, it jogged southerly around his buildings 
on Wolf Island. Thus Rochester was separated from the 
sea; and thus was created a new town on the shore of 
Buzzards Bay, with the old name of Mattapoisett. 



CHAPTER X 

THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND PRECINCT 

WRITTEN history within and for the territory now 
incorporated as the town of Mattapoisett dates from 
1736, and begins in two volumes, — "The Chh's Book, 
or the Records of the Second Chh. in Rochester, Which 
was first Embodied July 27, 1736," and "The Book of 
Records for Mattapoisett Precinct in Rochester, Decem- 
ber the 9th, 1736." Of these, the volume of Church 
records is a small book (about 6 x 7f inches) bound in full 
leather, and containing, usually in the handwriting of the 
pastors, the account of meetings, marriages and baptisms, 
considerably mixed up through the book, extending down 
to 1857. Since that date the record is in two volumes, 
and has, since 1865, been kept by the following clerks: 
Solomon K. Eaton, 1865-70; Henry Taylor, 1870-80; 
Noah Hammond, 1880-94; and by the writer since 1894. 
The first precinct book is a much more pretentious volume 
of full leather (8 x 12 J inches) of 560 pages. It covers a 
period of one hundred fifty years, ending 1886. There 
are many variations of handwriting, of which, with the 
possible exception of the last entries as made by Noah 
Hammond, the first forty pages as kept or copied in by 
Gideon Southworth are by far the best, — as is often the 
case in ancient records in New England. Many curious 
forms of spelling appear, both phonetic and otherwise. 



188 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

The precinct clerks have been: Benjamin Hammond, 
Jr., 1736; Gideon Southworth, 1737-49; John Hammond, 
1749-56; Barzillai Hammond, 1756-57; John Hammond, 
1758-71; Enoch Hammond, 1772-78; Benjamin Dexter, 
1779-80; Enoch Hammond, 1781-91; Thomas Tobey, 
1791-92; Aaron Norton, 1793-94, Thomas Tobey, 1795; 
Nathaniel Hammond, 1796-1802; Thomas Tobey, 1803- 
16; Elijah Willis (pro tern), 1817; William LeBaron (pro 
tern), 1817; Benjamin Barstow, 3d, 1817; Wilber South- 
worth, 1818-20; Amittai B. Hammond, 1821-26; Wilson 
Barstow, 1827; Benjamin F. Pope, 1828; Wilson Barstow, 
1829; Milton H. Leach, 1830; Allen Dexter, 1831-32; 
Leonard Hammond, 1833; Moores Rogers, 1834; Abner 
Harlow, 1835; Allen Dexter, 1836-38; Noah C. Sturtevant, 
1839; Calvin C. Cannon, 1840; Leonard Hammond, 1841- 
42; Noah C. Sturtevant, 1843-44; Allen Dexter, 1845-48; 
Samuel Sturtevant, Jr., 1849-54; Nathan H. Barstow, 
1855-58; Caleb King (pro tern), 1856; Hallet M. Cannon, 
1859-67; Solomon K. Eaton, 1868-72; Henry Taylor, 
1873-79; Lemuel LeB. Holmes (pro tern), 1874; Weston 
Howland (pro tern), 1875; Noah Hammond, 1880-94; 
Lemuel LeB. Dexter, 1894 — . 

In "The Chh's Book" prior to 1772, there are some 
lapses; but of the precinct, the record is continuous since 
Benjamin Hammond, Jr., the noted land surveyor of 
Bristol and Plymouth county towns, to begin his record 
as Precinct Clerk, copied in the Order of the General 
Court of June 9, 1736, whereby " Mr. Jabez Hammond 
one of the principal inhabitants of the new Precinct at 
Mattapoisett, in Rochester, was Impowered to assemble 
and Convene the freeholders and other inhabitants there 
Lawfully Qualified for Voting, to choose officers to stand 







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The Church in the Second Precinct 189 

until their anniversary meeting in March.'' Since that 
entry of the act of incorporation, no year is without its 
record, and in two bulky volumes are thus set down in 
unbroken succession the business dealings of one of the 
few territorial parishes now existing as such within the 
Commonwealth. 

In 1733 the people at Mattapoisett began to complain 
that they were "so remote from the Center as to make 
their Difficulty great in all publick Concerns," and they 
requested the formation of a separate parish. This was 
not arranged, however, until three years later, for the 
letter is dated Rochester, July 27, 1736, from "Timothy 
Ruggles, Paster in the name & with the Consent of the 
Brethren," which certifies "those our Brethren Moses 
Barlow, John Hammond, Thomas Dexter, Nathan 
Hammond, Thomas Clark, Jabez Hammond, Benjamin 
Hammond, Jun'r, Constant Dexter, & Samuel Dexter are 
while with us regular members in full communion, and 
are recommended as such, and it is hereby signified that 
those our Dear Brethren have our free consent that they 
form themselves into a Distinct Church according to 
Gospel order and we commend them unto God & to the 
word of his Grace which is able to build them up and 
give them an inheritance among them that are Sanctified. 
Desiring their prayers for us, we remain their Brethren 
in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel. 

" Also the Sisters are Dismissed in like manner, viz. : — 
Mary Hammond, Hannah Dexter, Mary Bools, Lydia 
Bools, Priscilla Hammond, Allis Clark, ThamsenTarden." 

On July 28 the nine men so dismissed subscribed to a 
covenant and thus instituted the "Distinct Church;" and 
having set their covenant down in full in " The Church's 



190 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Book," none of them deemed it necessary to make further 
record, for the next four years, — or perhaps in the 
absence of a settled pastor it was no one's duty. They 
organized the precinct, however, in December, and on 
the last day of the year 1736, the " freeholders and other 
Inhabitants," some of them doubtless leaving home by 
sunrise, met, as the warrant said, " by eight a clock in the 
forenoon, at the house of Lieut. John Hammond," which 
house still stands by the Herring Weir, — " to Consider 
and Conclude upon some proper ways and methods in 
order to the finishing the meeting-house and to do some- 
thing Relating to the way that leads from sd Precinct to 
the Country Rhode." This last item was evidently a 
matter at law, for they voted " to George Danford £3, 7s. 
6d. for his trouble in going Down to Plymouth Court 
about the way that leads from Parkers Harbour * into the 
Country Rhode near Mark Haskill's." For officers, 
they chose Jabez Dexter, moderator; Benj. Hammond, 
Jr., Clerk; and Josiah Dexter, Ebenezer Barlow, and 
Benj. Hammond, Jr., as Committee. 

They had evidently made a good start on their meeting- 
house, 2 before cold weather had come on, so that at this 
meeting they were only concerned with its finishing, and 
with approving bills already contracted, to meet which 
was voted " £7 to Capt. Hammond on an accompt paid 
in for framing," "Six Shillings to Jonathan Bools for 
Drawing Stones, Thomas Randol 50s. for his timber that 

1 Was this Aucoot Cove ? 

2 "These buildings they called meeting-houses. That any of their 
posterity should be so regardless of confounding language as to call them 
churches is to be regretted." — Thomas Robbins, D.D. A View of the 
First Planters of New England (p. 261). Hartford, 1843. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 191 

was used; also Mr. John Hammonds accompt of £2, 3s. 
for boarding the Carpenters while Framing, and £1, 16s. 
2d. to Mr. Jabez Hammond for Rum and Sugar provided 
for Raising sd House." The precinct met again in June 
and approved bills, and on October 13, 1737, the structure 
was so far toward completion that they met at the meeting- 
house and voted "to build Eleven pews by the Cost and 
charge of those that purchase the spots," and making 
choice of Gideon Southworth "Vendue Master," they 
forthwith bid off said "spots." 

This building stood at the fork of the roads, on the top 
of "Zion's Hill" as it was later called, which is now cut 
into by the town gravel pit, adjoining the present home- 
stead, of John Jenney. The house was, as near as can be 
estimated from the size of pews, and the facts shown in 
the records, approximately twenty-five feet square, with 
the "Great Door," of perhaps five feet width, in the 
middle at the south, and the pulpit opposite on the north 
side. There was another smaller door about one third 
of the way back on the east side. The center space on 
the floor was open for seating and was completely en- 
closed by pews, except where access to the doors or stairs 
was necessary, or where the pulpit stood. No pew varied 
much from being "Five foot square," and the "spot" 
just within the great door at the right was considered the 
choicest location, and was secured by Capt. Benj. Ham- 
mond for £8, 5s. Near the pulpit was less desired, and 
the pew at the west side of and adjoining the pulpit stairs 
went to Gideon Southworth : and Israel Hammond for £3. 
Josiah Hammond took the northwest corner, and along 
the west wall were Joseph Barlow, Thomas Clark, Lieut. 
Jabez Hammond ; while next, at the left of the south door, 



192 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

was the pew of Barzillai and Achelaus Hammond. Israel 
Hammond's was in the southwest comer next the east 
door, beyond which came Ebenezer Barlow, George 
Barlow, and then in the northeast corner Nathan Ham- 
mond. The gallery appears to have extended around 
three sides with "mens* stairs" and " womens' stairs," and 
was apparently open until, in 1744, it was voted "to pew 
all the front gallery provided they will fetch .£30 old tenor, 
and to divide them into four pews," and other gallery 
pews were added later. Nathan Tupper, Antipas Ham- 
mond, John Hammond, Jr., Gideon Southworth, and 
Constant Dexter had gallery pews. Out of "money the 
first pews sold for," Mr. Ebenezer Barlow was instructed 
"to finish the meeting-house so far as to build a Pulpit 
and Body of Seats," which was accomplished at a cost of 
£%7, 105., and here for thirty-five years, on the Sabbath 
day, the inhabitants gathered for the only religious ser- 
vices in Mattapoisett precinct. 

Lest it should pass from our knowledge what territory 
this precinct included, Enoch Hammond, the clerk of 
1788, inscribed on the fly-leaf of the record book: 

"The beginning of the bounds of Mattepoyset Precinct is the 
bridge of Cedar swamp brook, so called, 1 thence west to Dart- 
mouth town line (now New Bedford). Then beginning at said 
Bridge and rainging East 200 rods; from thence such a straight 
line to the sea, 2 as will strike that lot of land which Thomas 
Winslow's house now stands upon at the most northwesterly 
part thereof, and so down to the Sea." 

The first shepherd of this somewhat scattered flock 
was Rev. Elisha Tupper, who, on December 31, 1736, ac- 

1 Which flows under the Rochester road at the town line. 

2 The present southwesterly line of Marion is the same. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 193 

knowledged the receipt "from Capt. Benjamin Ham- 
mond, agent, the sum of twenty-five Pounds money, it 
being for my labor with the people of Mattapoisett pre- 
cinct for half a year." Mr. Tupper never was settled 
over this parish, but the question as to whether or not he 
should be, provoked great feeling. In March, 1737, the 
precinct voted to pay him all that was due him, but that 
<£70 be raised "to be paid out to the minister or ministers 
we shall Improve the Insuing year In proportion the sd. 
minister or ministers finding themselves provision, that 
the money be Drawed out of the treasury by the Commtt 
& be paid out to the minister or ministers that the sd 
precinct Shall Improve the time they are Improved," 
and that .£150 be raised "for a settlement to the first 
minister that shall be legally & orderly ordained and 
settled." On May 1, 1738, a meeting was warned to act 
on a proposed settlement of Mr. Tupper, "but att sd 
meeting by Reason of some Disorders and Interruption 
before the Moderator was chosen " the precinct committee 
"adjourned the meeting forthwith to the dwelling house 
of Mr. John Hammonds," where the precinct, as the 
margin reads, "Negatived Tupper," and declined to join 
with the church in a call. In the church body, two fac- 
tions appeared each calling itself the " Second Church in 
Rochester," and both appealed to the First Church for 
advice, who, — after council held, — through Minister 
Ruggles, sustained the views of that faction which in- 
cluded most of the charter members and which was op- 
posed to a settlement of Mr. Tupper. This strengthened 
the position of the precinct, who in 1739 voted when Mr. 
Tupper "Exhibited an accompt footed £130, 19s. 5d. that 
the precinct have distinctly considered every article there- 



194 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

in and find upon the whole that there is but £1, 7s. 3d. 
due to Sd Mr. Tupper besides £$0, 12s. 6d. already voted 
to him." They also voted to "Rev. Mr. Parker of Ply- 
mouth and Mr. Samuel Veazie of Duxborough forty 
shillings per day for their preaching here last year," for 
which service Mr. Veazie received £6. They also chose 
Ebenezer Barlow and Jonathan Boles "agents to agree 
with Mr. Jedediah Adams for half a year, with what time 
he hath been here, and allow him £50 for his services he 
finding himself Diet." All parties also subscribed to a 
covenant to "Desist all Differences and Indeavour to 
cease everything that may bring into Remembrance and 
augment the sd Differences but that it shall be buried in 
oblivion and all unite for the calling of an orderly Min- 
ister." They then voted Mr. Tupper a gift of £8, from 
money not required to pay Mr. Adams, and May 10, 
1740, chose Mr. Israel Hammond "an agent to look out 
and agree with a minister to preach a quarter of a year 
after Mr. Adams's Second Quarter is out." 

Israel Hammond "looked out" so successfully that 
three months later, August 11, 1740, the church desired 
the precinct's concurrence in a call to Mr. Ivory Hovey, 
"and upon a Deliberate consideration thereof" the vote 
was taken, the precinct joined in the call, and voted "to 
allow him £100 for his salary the first year, and after that 
to raise his salary yearly in proportion as the list and 
valuation is raised, which the precinct assessors take to 
make the precinct Rates by, until it comes to £150, and 
there to stand the money to be equal to bills on this prov- 
ince old tenor" with £200, additional for the settlement. 

Mr. Hovey accepted this call with a fervent letter to 
the church and congregation, recommending " that every- 






The Church in the Second Precinct 195 

thing that is amiss among you be reformed, the renewal 
of unhappy Contentions & Controversies be prevented 
and an humble, meek, peaceable and forgiving spirit be 
revived," and on his part it was by him agreed "to devote 
myself to the work of the Gospel Ministry in this place 
so long as life and Health shall be continued, a comfortable 
support offered and so long as there shall appear a pros- 
pect of my best Serving the Interest of Religion thereby." 

Ivory Hovey, junior, was born in Topsfield, July 3, 
1714. He joined the Topsfield church when fifteen years 
old, "his mind having been seriously aroused by a tre- 
mendous earthquake two years before." He entered 
Harvard in 1731, and although away nearly a full year 
from illness, he graduated in 1735, and received his mas- 
ter's degree in 1739. In 1737, while teaching in a private 
family in Biddeford, he met Olive — the daughter of Cap- 
tain Samuel Jordan, the well-known Indian Fighter; to 
whom he was married February 8, 1739. He had sup- 
plied churches at Tewksbury, Arundel, York, and Bidde- 
ford, and appeared at Mattapoisett as a young man of 
twenty-six, but recently married, of slight physique, and 
of studious and serious mind. He was ordained and 
installed as the first pastor of the Second Church in 
Rochester, October 29, 1740. Eighteen citizens prom- 
ised about £25 extra toward his settlement, and Jonathan 
Boles agreed to give him "2000 great shingles," while 
Samuel Look offered four gallons of rum, " if Mr. Hovey 
builds a house in said precinct, for raising." 

Mr. Hovey started at once organizing his church and 
reviving its records. His first step was naturally to 
provide the usual church officers, so "Dec'r 4th 1740. 
At a chh meeting the vote was called whither this chh 



196 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

would chose their Deacons or Persons to stand in the 
Room of such & persons to set the Psalm by the major 
part of the present voters. Passed in ye affirmative. 
Accordingly Mr. George Barlow & Mr. Constant Dexter 
were chosen to set the Psalm & Mr. Joseph Barlow and 
Mr. Jabez Hammond chosen to stand in the place of 
Deacons & perform the work of such until there might 
be opportunity for the Chh to proceed into the full ob- 
servation of the Apostolical Direction — let the Deacons 
be first proved, then let them use the office of a Deacon 
being found blameless. Also voted at the sd meeting that 
the persons chosen to sustain the place of Deacons should 
read the Psalm/' 

These continued on trial until, in 1742, the church met 
and "concluded to bring in their Votes for four persons 
whom they looked upon best qualified to be invested with 
sd office & then refer it to a sacred Lott, which two of 
the four God hath chosen unto that office, which affair 
was proceeded in with Solemn Prayer unto him who 
knew the hearts of all that he would give perfect Lotts, 
and the Lotts fell upon Mr. Joseph Barlow and Mr. 
Nathan Tupper & they took their place." It was also 
voted that " Deacon Barlow should read the Psalm still, 
and Deacon Tupper should tune it to the Congregation." 
Brother Tupper tried it six weeks and made request to 
be relieved, and the "Chh made choice of Mr. George 
Barlow as Tuner." 

That this church did not escape the controversy as to 
music which was general at that time is evidenced by the 
record: "April 16, 1744, the Chh met to see whither some- 
thing might be done to remove the great uneasiness that 
had arisen and had been long subsisting among us about 



The Church in the Second Precinct 197 

the Rule of Singing in divine worship, or singing by Rule, 
and after a considerable debate concerning a Vote or 
Agreement or Covenant (as some called it) which was 
consented unto by a certain Number of Persons in this 
place before there was a church gathered here, viz., that 
the new way of Singing (for so they stiled regular sing- 
ing) should forever be kept out of ye Prect. hereupon 
the vote was called whether the Chh did look upon said 
act to be but a Vote. Voted in the affirmative; and 
hereupon the Vote was called whether this Chh do now 
Judge it most proper for ye future to sing by Rule in 
ye publick worship of God among us? Voted in ye 
affirmative." In 1751, they further "had discourse 
about bringing Dr. Wattses Version of the Psalms l into 
publick worship, but not very well agreeing in that the 
matter was waived for further consideration." 

And so the matter rested until ten years later it was 
voted " To sing Dr. Watts' Version of the Psalms in Pub- 
lick" and chose Aaron Barlow "Quorister." Even after 
this, Dr. Watts' version was accepted with considerable re- 
luctance, for in 1762 one of the objects of a church council 
then called was " to attempt to pacify some of the people 
who were dissatisfied with their singing the new version." 

Meanwhile, the church life had progressed as was usual 
to the times. Mr. Hovey regularly mounted his pulpit 
stairs, laid out his sermon (a few of which have been 

1 "The version first used by N. E. churches was Ainsworth's after 
which they used one called the New England Psalm Book. It was 
common for ministers to expound a little on the psalms before singing. 
Some congregations sang the psalms in course. The practice of reading 
the line was not introduced until many years after the first settlement, 
— in Plymouth not until 1681." — Thomas Robbins, D.D. A View 
of the First Planters of New England. Hartford, 1843. 



198 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

preserved, written on twelve pages of paper, four inches 
wide and six inches long with fifty-three closely written 
and legible lines to the page) and preached to the occu- 
pants of the square pews, the gallery and the " body of 
seats." Nearly every month, true to Pedobaptist doctrine, 
some new infant was brought forward for baptism. On 
a rare occasion some brother arose in the open confes- 
sional and expressed sorrow for his indulgence in too 
much new rum, or some frailer sister " acknowledged her 
sin in Braking ye Seventh Commandment;" and made 
their peace with the church. Others needed dealings for 
absenting themselves from communion. All these mat- 
ters required the administration of the " needful discipline 
of the kingdom," and to better perform this branch of 
the work, the church in 1744, " Mett to Consult something 
about the Choice of Ruling Elder, 1 distinct from the 
Teaching Eldr, and after Prayers to God for Direction 
and some Conference & Debate upon this affair, the Vote 
was called whither this Chh was Rype for proceeding in 
the Business; Voted in the affirmative." And after 
further prayer they put in their votes, and so chose Mr. 
George Barlow and Deacon Nathan Tupper and in- 
structed them to "look upon the Chh Platform to be a 
scheme for church Discipline, and to take the same for a 
rule in their office." 

1 "A ruling elder was held by them to be a proper church officer who 
was to assist the minister or ministers in the duties of discipline and to 
take a lead in the church on various occasions which called for their 
particular deliberations, and in want of a minister to perform the duties 
of divine service. In some instances the ruling elder was a preacher. 
Such was Mr. Brewster, the venerable Elder of the church at Plymouth." 
— Thomas Robbins, D.D. A View of the First Planters of New Eng- 
land, p. 252. Hartford, 1843. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 199 

Sometimes it was a doctrinal doubt, rather than a 
moral lapse, which required attention, as that of "our 
Brother Benj. Hammond whom we had been frequently 
laboring with to convince of his erroneous principles," 
and with whom "publickly, the Chh had a conferance, 
and who freely signified that he had in some measure 
changed his former Sentiments about Original Sin & the 
Doctrine of the Divine Decrees, and spake very candidly 
upon the same to the satisfaction of those in the Chh who 
had been uneasy about ye matter." 

Mr. Hovey especially applied his efforts to restoring 
the breach caused by the division over Mr. Tupper. 
Numerous church meetings discussed further means for a 
reconciliation and settlement of this "Old Diffurance" 
as they called it. By " mutual agreem'ts & Interchang- 
ible Acknowledgm'ts of their Faults," the aggrieved 
brethren were one by one received back; but some were 
not easily won over. It was five years after Mr. Hovey's 
settlement that Lieut. Antipas Hammond, "one of the 
brethren who for some time had been Dissatisfied with 
some things that have been laboring in the Chh relating 
to ye Old Differance now saw light to join with this Chh 
in full communion, and upon his manifestation of the 
same the Chh Voted to receive him." The minister who 
thus recorded this happy restoration little thought that a 
few years thereafter his precinct would forbid him to 
preach in their meeting-house, and that his attempts to 
perform the duties of his pastoral office would stir up 
more strenuous controversy than ever had arisen over the 
"Old Difference." 

Encouraged perhaps by the offer of great shingles and 
rum, and expecting doubtless to spend his days with this 



200 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

parish, Mr. Hovey erected his house (which now, moved 
down to the village, stands on the shore near the foot of 
Mechanic Street) in the field lying south of the road, 
opposite the present dwelling of Nathan B. Denham, — 
within easy distance of the meeting-house. Here were 
born his six children. The precinct had made him a 
liberal settlement, and the people were so glad to have 
an "Orderly Paster" duly settled that for some years it 
was unnecessary to levy the lawful rates, and his salary 
was collected "by way of free Contribution. " The 
minister, however, could not seem to keep out of debt. 
Two years after his arrival, he was granted "<£30. old 
tenor for to pay his Debts and not as any part of his 
salary." Whether the watchful dames considered Mrs. 
Hovey to be "Spendfull," or little Dominicus to be too 
finely appareled, or too apt to wear his shoes on other 
days than Sundays, we know not. But we do know that 
it became increasingly difficult to collect the "Gospel 
Rates," and harder still for the minister to meet his obliga- 
tions. Some began to be dissatisfied with his preaching. 
Mr. Hovey quit making entries in the church's record 
book in 1751, and for the period on to 1772 we can only 
learn what occurred from the precinct records, and from 
facts set forth by Mr. LeBaron, who, upon taking over 
"the Chhs Book," in order as he said "to make the Con- 
tents answer in some Measure to ye Title, being Records 
of the Chh, etc.," collected from loose papers what he 
could find, and set it down in chronological order. As 
Mr. LeBaron was on the spot soon after, but was con- 
nected with none of the parties involved in Mr. Hovey's 
dismission, we cannot do better than to take his version 
of the affair. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 201 

"June 25, 1765. Mr. Hovey complained to the 
church that his circumstances were very discouraging, 
1, — His Sallary was very low which had occasioned his 
being involved in Debt; 2, There was growing alienation 
of the people's affections toward him; 3, His Ministry was 
attended with little or no success. The Chh. appeared 
desirous to redress his grievances as far as they were able. 
They desired a Society Meeting to see if the Society would 
joyn to redress, etc., which not being done at that meeting 
of the Society, the Chh. met again and chose a Committee 
to examine into Mr. Hovey's Circumstances to see what 
help would be sufficient. The Committee conferred with 
their Pastor, looked into his affairs and returned to the 
Chh with the following Report. That if Mr. Hovey 
could be immediately supplied with a Sum of Money to 
the Value of about <£47 lawf '1 Money and have his sallary 
increased to <£60, with his fire wood annually, they and 
he thought that he would be enabled to discharge his 
Debts and live well: and Mr. Hovey offered that if they 
would buy his House and Lot for a Parsonage he would 
be satisfied with half the 47 Pound. — The society did not 
comply with the above report, and the Chh could not 
and so the matter rested. In 1767 the Chh seemed to 
be too much in Parties and there was a growing Disaffec- 
tion between the Pastor and several of the members. In 
1760 a memorial was drawn up and sent into the Chh 
containing several things against their Pastor. A council 
was sent for to adjust matters, and what was their Result 
I know not, but by what follows it seems that they ad- 
vised a Dismission, for Mar. 5, 1768 the Revd. Mr. Hovey 
preached a farewell sermon and after sermon put it to 
Vote whether the Chh would in Pursuance of the Advice 



202 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

of the Council dismiss him from the Work of the Ministry 
among them; but one held up his Hand for the Dismission. 
Mr. Hovey then signified to the people that since the Chh 
would not Vote his Dismission he looked upon himself 
obliged to tarry with them and carry on his work as usual. 

" 1768 — May — Kept a Day of fasting & Prayer, the 
Ministers that assisted were the Revd. Messrs Conant & 
Turner of Middleborough and West of Dartmouth. The 
advice of these Gentlemen was to send for another Council, 
in which all sides should agree. The Disturbance was 
at this time at a suprising height. The Chh prepared a 
Petition to the Society desiring them not to proced as they 
mention in their Warrant to shut up the Meeting House, 
but the Petition did not meet with acceptance and the 
Chh chose a Committee to complain of the Precinct to 
the Court for shutting up the House etc., but the House 
being opened prevented their going any further. July, 
1768, they agree upon a mutual Council, the Revd. Messrs 
Williams of Sandwich, Robbins of Plymouth, Conant of 
Middleborough, Angew of Bridgewater. The Chhs and 
Ministers sent to, came and formed into a Council on 
Tuesday Aug. 23 and adjourned from one day to another 
all that week, hearing all their grievances. What was the 
result I know not. October 16, 1768, the last Chh 
Meeting that was moderated by Mr. Hovey was at that 
time; in which the records of the Chh were delivered to 
Deacon Clark. I conclude therefore that the Revd. Mr. 
Hovey was dismissed at this time and I suppose it was 
agreeable to the result of the last Council. " 

Mr. Hovey's farewell sermon was printed and a copy 
is to be found in the Congregational Library, Boston. 
His text was 2 Cor. xiii. 11. And in his discourse he 



The Church in the Second Precinct 203 

said: "Lay aside all unchristian resentments toward any 
whom you may think have been the blameable instruments 
of the removal of your minister. I repeat it, do not harbor 
nor indulge in any unbecoming resentments or judge 
against one another on your own account, or for my sake 
whom you may think injuriously treated." He also made 
lengthy remarks especially addressed to "any children or 
youth who are rejoicing in the thoughts of their minister's 
Departure in hopes they shall be under less restraint on 
Sabbath Days and other times." 

The correctness of Mr. LeBaron's supposition is also 
shown by the Precinct record of December 26, 1768, when 
" a Vote was called & Drafted in the following : — All you 
that are so minded as to Joyne with ye Church In Com- 
pliance with Ye Council's Result to Dismiss Mr. Hovey 
manifest it. — Voted in ye affirmative." Of the Council's 
recommendation, as specified in the warrant, that "ye 
Precinct Pay Mr. Hovey the sum of £70, as a Considera- 
tion for ye Damiges he may sustain by his Dismission, & 
£45, 4s. 6d. for his Ministerial Services from ye first Day 
of March Last to ye first Day of January next," they 
made short work; and without discussion "passed the 
Vote In Ye Negative." This was in full accord with 
their previous attitude when eighteen months before they 
had " Maid choice of Ebenezer Magges, Ephr'm Dexter, 
Zaccheus Meede a Committee to Desier Mr. Hovey to 
Desist Preeching in our meeting-House & if he Refuses 
to forbid him," and "also at sd Meeting, voted that the 
meeting House shall be Loct & fastened & Not be opened 
but by order from the Ceepers of ye meeting Howse & 
No other untill we have a minister. And that Enoch 
Hammond, Sulvenas Gibes, Wilber Southworth should 



204 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

be an assistant to ye Meeting House Keeper to act against 
any who secretly or by open Violence should brake open 
said Meeting House." It also accorded with their 
vote August, 1769, when, meeting under a warrant "to 
Consider the Broken and Distrest circumstances of ye 
Precinct Relating to the Minister & to Consider & Act 
on proper measurs for handling ye Same," they 
directed that "John Clark, Ephream Dexter & Obed 
Barlow be a Committee to go to Mr. Ivory Hovey and in 
ye Name & Behalf of ye Second Precinct in Rochester to 
Inform him that his Preching in our Meeting Howse for 
a long time past has bin to our Damige and to ye Preja- 
duce of Good Order and the Restoration of Pece amongst 
us, and we do as a precinct forbid your entering into sd 
Howse to Prech aney more without orders from ye Pre- 
cinct." 

But in finally turning Mr. Hovey away empty, and 
terminating his settlement without a penny for his damage, 
the precinct evidently let their feelings lead them into 
error; for the parson entered his case at Plymouth Court, 
and in spite of the efforts of Gideon Southworth, Israel, 
Nathaniel, and Enoch Hammond, as agents, and <£38, 
7s. 5d. spent for attorney's fees and going to Plymouth; 
<£8, 16*. for horse hire 176 miles, (together with other 
charges), Mr. Hovey, his cause having been "Deter- 
mined in Cort by a Reference," recovered judgment 
in 1770 against the precinct for the sum of ,£130 lawful 
money. 

Mr. Hovey not only took his cause to Plymouth, but he 
moved his family thither, being installed over the " Second 
Church of Plymouth," at Manomet, April 18, 1770. 
There he preached for twenty-three years, there he died, 



The Church in the Second Precinct 205 

and his tombstone there standing reads, "In memory of 
Rev. Ivory Hovey who died Nov. 4, 1803 in the 90th year 
of his age. — 

By faith he lived, by faith he died, 

Christ was his portion, theme, and guide, 

In precept and example shone. 

With love to God & love to man 

His daily course of action ran, 

Till God his Saviour, called him home." 

His funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Niles of 
Abington, from Acts xx. 38, and among other tributes it 
was said, "he left behind him as great an example of 
meekness, patience, and Christian perseverance as ever 
perhaps shown in the character of a finite being," and the 
eulogist may have recalled not only his endurance against 
ill health at Manomet, but also the fact that he had been 
a "good stayer" at Mattapoisett. 

He is described as a small man who wore the usual 
knee breeches and shoe buckles of the time. His short- 
hand diary of seven thousand pages has never been trans- 
lated. As did others of the educated ministry of his 
time, — notably the Rev. Samuel Palmer at Falmouth, 
John Tuck at Isles of Shoals, and Michael Wigglesworth 
at Maiden, — he tended bodily ailments as well as spir- 
itual, and his memoranda which he kept while at Mano- 
met show accounts for peppermint drops, pills, and 
rhubarb, and one man is charged for "bleeding his wife 
and physick." When a young man of twenty he set 
down some rules for the conduct of life, among which are, 
"keep the blood & jueses in due fluidity and nothing will 
do this but keeping to a spare, lean, fluid sort of diet. 
Frequent purges conduceth much to long life and health. 
— I would reccommend could water. Yet I would say 



206 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

use a little wine for your stomach's sake. But by no 
means drink could water or anything else could when 
you are hot. For a frequency in the use of liquors which 
they call spirits be as afraid of it as you would be of a 
familiarity with evil spirits. Chew Myrrh. Smoak little 
or no tobacco — if you can help it. It is the observation 
of a very discrete man who said he had often got hurt by 
eating too much, rarely by eating too little; often got hurt 
by wearing too few cloathes, rarely by wearing too many, 
got hurt by speaking, rarely by holding his tongue." 

Among Mr. Hovey's published sermons are, one on 
the "Duty and Privilege of Aged Saints, occasioned by 
the death of Lieut. John Hammond of Rochester, Boston, 
1749," and a "Farewell Sermon at Mattapoisett, 1769, 
2 Cor. xiii. 11, Boston 1770." 

During the latter part of Mr. Hovey's pastorate, owing 
to variances in the church itself, and in part perhaps to 
the inroads of new doctrines, the collection of the rates 
caused much worriment in precinct meetings. It was a 
thankless job, and with little pay, although obligatory. 
In 1769, Samuel Bools and Zaccheus Meed being suc- 
cessively chosen Collector and in turn refusing, Wilber 
Southworth was chosen agent to prosecute them both at 
the next sessions of the Peace. Sometimes " Raite Bills " 
were not turned in for four or five years and suit was 
threatened, or often the collector besought that the re- 
mainder of his bill might be remitted. In 1770 was 
passed the very tolerant vote that "ye Assessors of this 
Precinct shall assess all sd Precinct excepting Ebenezer 
Magges, Nathaniel Cushman, Baptest; and Barzilla Ham- 
mond & all that Goe under ye Denomination of Quakers." 

Mr. Joseph Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard was at this 



The Church in the Second Precinct 207 

time boarding with Enoch Hammond (whose wife was 
Drucilla the daughter of the Rev. Thomas West of North 
Rochester), and "for his Preeching sixteen Saboth days, 
ten Dolors per Saboth " Mr. May hew was voted £9, 12s. 
Various others probably supplied the pulpit during 1770. 
On March 1, 1771, at precinct meeting a vote was 
" Drafted and put that Doctor Bradford or Nathl. Hammond 
or either of them go to Boxford ye last of March Inst & 
In ye Name & Behalf of this Precinct Desire Mr. Lemuel 
LeBaron to Return to us & Supply ye place of a minister 
In our Parish this summer. Voted in the afirmitive." 
Mr. LeBaron 's reply was likewise in the affirmative. 
June 12, 1771, the church voted "to give Mr. Leml. 
LeBaron a Call," and appointed Elder Barlow, Antipas 
Hammond & Deacon Clark to present him with it. On 
June 25 the precinct joined in the call "by a Vote in the 
affirmative, unanimous." Preparations for ordination 
and settlement were made, and Mr. LeBaron was duly 
installed January 29, 1772. "The Solemnity was intro- 
duced by prayer by Rev. Mr. Thatcher of Ware ham. A 
sermon from 1 Tim. 2, last clause of the 4th verse, was 
preached by Rev. Mr. Robbins of Plymouth, 1 Mr. 
Hovey made the ordaining Prayer, Mr. Bacon of Ply- 
mouth gave the charge. Mr. West of Rochester the 
right Hand of Fellowship, and Mr. Robbins of Norfolk 
in Connecticut the concluding Prayer." The Moderator 
Mr. Parker of Plympton obtained the assent of the people, 
and thus was auspiciously begun a connection which was 
severed only by death and that after a period of sixty-five 
years. 

1 This sermon of Rev. Chandler Robbins was printed, and is to be 
found in the Congregational Library, Boston. 



208 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Rev. Lemuel LeBaron was the grandson of Francis, 
the first of the name in America, who was the surgeon of 
a French privateer wrecked in 1644 on a ledge of rocks 
on the western shore of Sandwich, who was taken to 
Plymouth a prisoner, and remained there upon request 
of the selectmen in the practice of his profession until his 
death in 1704. The mystery of his name and origin has 
never been solved. His descendants have written lengthy 
arguments as to whether he was a Huguenot or Catholic, 
but his grandson, the minister, writing on his eightieth 
birthday "for the benefit of his posterity, "simply says, " He 
embraced the Protestant faith, but was fond of his crucifix 
which he wore suspended in his bosom to the day of his 
death." Lemuel LeBaron was born in Plymouth Sep- 
tember 1, 1747. His father was Dr. Lazarus LeBaron, 
who practised many years in that town, and his mother 
was Lydia Bradford, a great-granddaughter of the Pilgrim 
Governor. As he himself expressed it, he received a 
"Public Education," being graduated from Yale in 1768, 
receiving his A.M. in due course in 1771. He early united 
with the church in Norfolk, Connecticut, and not long 
after went into the study of divinity with Rev. Daniel 
Brinsmade of Woodbury and preached at sundry places 
before coming to Mattapoisett. 

Although known to the later generation as the "Old 
Minister," and his house being commonly referred to as 
the " Old Mansion," it should be remembered that Lemuel 
LeBaron was less than twenty-four years old when the 
Second Church of Rochester extended to him its call. 
Soon thereafter he was required as an executor to settle 
the estate of his father from whom he received a substan- 
tial inheritance. November 24, 1774, he married Eliza- 



The Church in the Second Precinct 209 

beth Allen of Martha's Vineyard, and the following spring 
he began the construction of his house near the Meeting- 
house, — which is now owned by Nathan B. Denham. 
Capt. Charles Bryant used to say, and other old people 
still have the tradition, that the carpenters left their work 
of getting out frame to answer to the Lexington Call, and 
that the timbers lay piled together for a year or more of 
the war period. Certain it is that on March 1, 1775, the 
precinct voted him his " 10 cds of wood at the place where 
his house is to stand," and that on March 1, 1776, when 
they "Vandiewd the Giting of the wood to the lowest 
Bidder," it was to be delivered "either at Mr. LeBaron's 
new seller or at Landing by the harbour side as Mr. 
LeBaron chuses." Also it appears that in the rolls of 
Revolutionary soldiers at the State House is the name, 
"Rev. Lemuel LeBaron, chaplain, Lexington Alarm Call 
— 4 days." In 1812 he was also commissioned by Gov- 
Eldridge Gerry as Chaplain of the Third Regiment. He 
then chose not to qualify, doubtless on account of age, 
being then sixty-five years old. 

The new minister appears to have early obtained the 
confidence of his people. Imbued with some of his 
youthful enthusiasm, contending factions were glad to 
unite in the common cause of providing a new and larger 
meeting-house. There were sundry propositions made to 
relocate either on land of Israel Hammond or "near 
where Ebenezer Barlow's Dwelling-house stood"; but 
June 23, 1772, the precinct "mett on the hill where the 
Old Meeting House stood," and voted "the new house 
should stand on the under pining whare it is began on the 
hill." To defray the cost, pews were sold according to 
plan, it being agreed that any deficit should be propor- 



210 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

tioned, or any surplus distributed. At first it was voted 
that "sd House be Built Fifty two feete frunt and forty 
two feete Back," but this was amended to have it "44 
Feet & 40 Feet on the Ground & Pew it all round the 
Wals except two Dors & Eight Pews in the Bodey seets 
belo, and pew all round the frunt in the Galery and seete 
all the Remaining room above & below that is proper for 
seeting." The committee consisting of Moses Barlow, 
Zaccheus Mead and Enoch Hammond were instructed 
"to have the House Completed Workman Like, Lathed, 
Plastered the walls over head and under the Galerys & 
Handsomly to paint sd house Out sid and Number the 
Pews on there Dores." In 1795 a few more pews were 
added on the floor, the next year four more "adjoining 
the back alley." In 1799 David Dexter was given a spot 
to build a pew "on the East side of the Broad Alley, 
adjacent to that Sold to Sherman Lincoln to be the same 
Bigness of said Lincoln's. He giving the precinct his 
Pew in the front Galery and two Dollers." In 1805 
John A. LeBaron and William Moore purchased at an 
auction by the moderator, Capt. Moors Rogers, two 
more lower floor pews for $20 and $24, respectively. After 
1772 the spare time of three or four years was spent in 
"lying the door stones and leveling the Meetinghouse 
hill," for this was done by the men of the parish, the 
precinct being divided into four sections each with a direc- 
tor, — of which " Insign Jabez Norton " was one to 
"oversee and give direction to those persons assessed in 
his district." 

This house stood until it went down before the great 
"September Gale" of 1815. Wilson Barstow, Esq., in 
the Plymouth County Enterprise (Silas W. Snow's local 



The Church in the Second Precinct 211 

publication), November 15, 1879, wrote over the initial 
"W" — 

"I remember well how the old church looked; galleries on two 
sides, a small pulpit with a door to shut in the minister, and as 
high or higher than the galleries with a sounding board above it. 
In front of the pulpit were two or three plank seats without any 
backs for old men to sit on. The pews were square, with 
banisters, and seats on three sides, a chair in the middle for 
the old lady to sit in. No cushions and no fire ever built in 
that church, and it was about as open and bleak as an old 
fashioned barn. Very airy. The program of the service was 
to begin at 10.30 a.m. and out at 12, and at 1 and out at 2.30, p.m. 
The service always occupied the time. Mr. LeBaron would 
preach a sermon forty minutes' long from a piece of paper no 
larger than the fly leaf of a primer with a few hieroglyphics on 
it. Most of the people carried a lunch and staid for the after- 
noon. We boys prospected in the orchards during recess." 

A few weeks later, Mr. Joseph W. Church, of Rochester, 
wrote to the same paper: 

"In your edition of Nov. 15, over the signature of ' W,' I notice 
a description of the Mattapoisett meeting-house which stood on 
the hill. In passing it on a cold, windy day I always seemed to 
feel an additional chill, it looked so cold and dreary. I read 
the reference to that house with a very deep interest, for it 
brought to mind the olden time memories that had receded 
almost beyond my reach. 

"The meeting-house of Mattapoisett was a perfect pattern 
of the old house at Rochester Center; the pews on the lower 
floor, the galleries and the sounding board, how well I remem- 
ber how it looked the first time I ever saw it. All was new to me 
then, and all was interesting; and singular as it may seem, Mr 
LeBaron, that 'W mentioned so particularly, occupied the 
pulpit for that day, and preached that first sermon that I ever 
heard, though if Henry Ward Beecher had preached the sermon, 
I should have given but little attention to it, as the sounding-board 
took all my thought. What can it be, and what is it there for ? 
At last I enquired of someone, and was told that it was to put 
the bad boys in, and if you are not a good boy you will have to 



212 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

go there; and possibly the fear of being sentenced to go up 
there had much to do in making me the good boy that I was." 

Mr. LeBaron's long pastorate might well be termed 
the "era of good feeling." The attention of the precinct 
was largely occupied in arrangements for the minister's 
wood; the management of rate bills, the improvement of 
the salt meadow, the securing the precinct's right in 
ministry lands (by joining in 1773 with Wareham to 
defend the action brought by the First Precinct), and 
preventing trespass upon them, till their final sale and 
exchange about 1789. At that date the precinct thus 
obtained the acre called " the Barlow Cemetery " * from 
Capt. Elihu Sheaman; and the "Hammond cemetery" 
of eighty rods, near the meeting-house, from Israel and 
Noah Hammond, — the latter tract still being subject to- 
day, by the deed, to the right of the heirs of said Ham- 
monds to pasture calves thereon. In 1791, with funds 
derived from land sales, the precinct purchased from 
Governor John Hancock " what he took by execution from 
Elnathan Eldredge," about eighty acres on the Neck, 
"for a perpetual parsonage," a portion of which tract the 
precinct still holds. 

While these were some of the principal concerns in 
prudential affairs, there was always, however, the matter 
of Mr. LeBaron's salary. This was fixed in 1771 at <£70 
annually, with ten cords of wood to be delivered at his 
dwelling-house; and for a settlement £133, 6s. 8d. to be 
given in three equal payments. In accepting this offer 

1 This burial-ground in the rear of the late Col. G. M. Barnard, Jr.'s, 
house was conveyed to the town in 1886, see vote of the Precinct: Rec- 
ords, Vol. 1, page 555. There had been interments at this location 
earlier than 1740. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 213 

Mr. LeBaron, in his letter, said : " As to my maintenance 
I am persuaded that you will be willing to minister unto 
me in carnal things while I am spending my life in minis- 
iering unto you in spiritual. I shall always endeavor to 
be as Tender with you in this point as possible." In this 
he kept his word. When in 1785 some shrewd members 
of the precinct "thought it reasonable he should abate 
something in his yearly salary on account of his owning 
the land in part on which his salary and settlement was 
levied when first he became minister," "the Rev. Mr. 
LeBaron came in person to sd meeting, and declared sd 
precinct might abate five pounds from his stated salary; 
which was accepted by sd Precinct as a favor, being a 
greater sum than sd Precinct supposed he ought to abate 
for the land afore sd," — and his rate so continued for 
two years. In 1781 he "Generously gave said Precinct 
£20 of his salary this year." At times of difficulty he 
accepted notes as cash, consented to "gather his own 
rates," and agreed to take his wood standing or remit it 
altogether. In 1779, in the hard times of the Revolution, 
he "manifested to the precinct that he would be satisfied 
with one hundred bushels of Indian Corn Delivered him 
next December in Lu of his sd sallary," and those who 
furnished corn were allowed £5, 12s. per bushel therefor 
on their rate. That winter perhaps Mrs. LeBaron, as 
was said of the wife of another minister who had been 
partly paid in rye, was obliged "to fire the oven to bake 
the salary." His only complaint was made in 1780, 
when being voted a salary of £2100 (currency) the 
"Gradual as well as the Suding Deprecation of Paper 
Money is such that it is difficult if not Imposable to 
assertain its value for one month yet to come," upon his 



214 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

request the Precinct met and voted him, "in Lue of the 
2100, seventy pounds in Silver Money." 
In 1879, "W" in the Enterprise wrote: 

"Mr. LeBaron preached sixty years in that old church and 
the one built after that blew down, without any member of his 
society ever thinking that the minister could be ousted and a 
new one put in his place. His salary was $233, and never was 
increased nor asked to be. One year in the Revolutionary war 
he received only twenty cents in cash for his salary. He was 
not only a faithful minister, but equally full of patriotism. He 
lived a long life without a stain on his moral or Christian char- 
acter. Would we had more like him. Now, the more a 
minister knows the more likely he is to be switched off the 
track." 

Mr. LeBaron 's catalogue of the eighty-five members * at 
his ordination, in 1772, shows thirty-five men including 
"Tom, Toby, & Jack, Blacks," and forty-six women of 
which two were " Negroes." January 1, 1835, he recorded, 
"the members of the church now living are as follows, 
viz Males 60, Females 101, total 161." "Scarcely a 
year passed," wrote Dr. Robbins, "without additions to 
the church. In 1807, and the year following, there was 
the greatest revival that has been in this place, about 
eighty were added to the church. There was also a good 
work of divine grace in 1820, again in 1824, in 1829 and in 
1834." It was at this last-named date that Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Hubbard said she best remembered her grandfather. 
The "Old Minister" seldom attended the evening ser- 
vices but, being brought out to one, although much 
affected he took no part until near the close, when, rising, 
he stretched forth his hands and recited, the tears freely 
flowing, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace 

1 See Extracts from the Records, V, in this book. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 215 

according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy sal- 
vation." A writer in the American Quarterly Register 
of November, 1835, said of Mr. LeBaron: "He is now in 
the 89th year of his age, yet retaining his mental powers 
in an uncommon degree. His head bleached with the 
storms of life, his heavenly mien, his soft and mild voice, 
and his impressive manner all conspired to speak his 
worth and give weight and effect to the solemn instruc- 
tions that fell from the lips of the patriarch." 

On the 26th of February, 1836, the " Old Minister" had 
a paralytic shock, not severe, but rendering him mostly 
helpless. In November following he was taken with the 
prevailing influenza, attended with some fever. He died 
on the 26th of that month. Dr. Robbins chose for the 
text of his "Uncle LeBaron's" funeral sermon (written, 
as he says, laboriously and seven hours by candle light the 
night before), 2 Kings xi. 12, " My father, my father, the 
chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." This was 
especially fitting from the fact that nearly all of the five 
of his children who attained maturity had settled and 
reared their families in the immediate neighborhood, and 
Dr. Robbins at the funeral said, " He looked upon all his 
people as his children. He felt that he had lived long 
seeing one generation after another pass away. No one 
survives that acted on the subject of his ordination, or 
that was then a member of the church." 

Dr. Robbins further said: "As a preacher Mr. 
LeBaron was eminently practical and experimental. The 
great peculiarity of his preaching in which he was dis- 
tinguished from most others was the Gospel of Love. 
He possessed a happy talent for addressing children. I 
think I have not known any person who appeared to have 



216 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

a deeper sense of the importance and privilege of infant 
baptism than he had. He was a man of great liberality 
of feeling. Among his people he was a peacemaker. 
Such was the efficacy of his own example in this respect 
and the affectionate earnestness of his solicitude that he 
could hardly fail to prevent contention, or to reconcile 
such as were alienated. In this connection I would add 
that he has been greatly improved in Ecclesiastical Coun- 
cils and highly useful in preventing and healing divisions 
in churches. In his social character, Mr. LeBaron 
possessed a very happy talent in conversation; always 
cheerful he was interesting to every one and his conversa- 
sation was seldom other than profitable. In the war of 
the Revolution he fully shared in the dangers, the toils 
and privations of his people. His known character 
abroad was often useful in enabling them to procure 
necessary supplies. Our lamented friend has been favored 
with an uncommon degree of health during his long 
ministry, regularly performing his pastoral duties and 
seldom absent from home." 

A number of the "old minister's" sermons are in the 
possession of the writer, and they indicate clearly that he 
was familiar with shorthand, and inserted sections of it 
everywhere in his sentences. It also appears that paper 
was a scarce and valuable commodity. One sermon is 
written on the wide margin of a Thanksgiving proclama- 
tion, another on the back of a letter received from Valley 
Forge; all are of four-page length, the pages averaging 
about 3 J by 2f inches in size, with a neat margin at the 
left in which the text reference and dates of preaching are 
inserted. From these minute manuscripts, however, the 
preacher, as Wilson Barstow wrote, "occupied the time," 



The Church in the Second Precinct 217 

and another of that generation used to say that in his 
youth he never acquired the proper meaning of the word 
"finally," for Minister LeBaron having passed by his 
" fourteenthly " or " fifteenthly " used to then have a 
"lastly," a "finally," and a "to conclude," and the "to 
conclude " was longer than all that had gone before. 

Of the church during this long pastorate, one genera- 
tion had passed on and another had become active. Dea- 
cons Constant Dexter, Ezekiel Clark, Timothy West, 
Elihu Shearman, and Thomas Tobey had died; and Isaac 
Bowles, Nathan Cannon, Amittai B. Hammond, and 
Nathaniel A. Crosby stood in their places. The com- 
munity had grown and the church increased in numbers, 
even after the establishment of other denominations. 
Those who were carried away by Elder Hix's itinerant 
preaching had, however, to be reclaimed and dealt with. 
As early as July 23, 1773, " The Chh met to consider what 
was dutiful to be done with John Curby, Widow Lydia 
Bowles, Abigail Southworth, Mary Bowles, and Lydia 
Cushing, who have for some time absented themselves 
from our communion, being inclined to the Antipedo- 
baptist sect." and Elder Barlow and sundry brethren were 
appointed to confer with them. Nathaniel Hammond, 
who was baptized by Elder Hix the first Sabbath of Sep- 
tember, 1793, began in January following to receive 
delegations of Orthodox brethren, followed by letters of 
admonition, until in July, 1784, he was cut off from com- 
munion "for his Instability in the Christian Profession." 
Gideon Dexter, Alden Dexter, and Thomas Dexter later 
became unstable, and in 1809, Philip Atsatt having gone 
over to the Baptists was considered "a covenant breaker 
and no longer a member of this church." 



218 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Those who sought membership were encouraged, as in 
1774 Enoch Hammond and Solomon Young were named 
to see Theophulus Pease Jun., who " had applyed for ad- 
mittance but was discouraged by hearing that there would 
be Objections laid in against him." A certain Mr. and 
Mrs. Hammond "perpetually were quarrelling, he abus- 
ing her shamefully with his tongue," and this domestic 
affliction had the church's attention for some years. A 
few cases of unchastity had to be dealt with. Of the 
" blacks " in the catalogue of members of 1772, Tom, who 
dwelt with Noah Hammond, was the only one blameless 
in this respect. In 1782 complaint was brought against 
one Dexter, "for cruelly scourging a little boy who lived 
with him, and that on the Lords Day." "The offender 
condemning his conduct and expressing his sorrow for it, 
the Chh voted to restore him to former Charity." Nine 
years later it is recorded: "Voted the acceptance of sd 
Dexter's confession which he offered to the Chh for his 
Intemperance, but poor man, 2 Pet. ii. 22." This refer- 
ance was, from a different appearance of the ink, ap- 
parently added later. Perhaps on September 28, 1808, 
when after much consideration and investigation it being 
shown that "he still continued to indulge himself in the 
sin of Drunkunness, voted unanimously that he be unto 
us as an heathen man and a publican, agreeable to the 
direction of our Lord Jesus Christ, Mat. 18, 17 and that 
a coppy of sd Vote be sent to said Dexter. N.B. a coppy 
was sent." There were other cases of intemperance, but 
on the whole the instances of discipline are rather few 
for the long period the records cover. 

Meanwhile, successive committees made the rates or 
solicited funds by way of contribution. Lieut. Dominicus 



The Church in the Second Precinct 219 

Hovey and his successors "kept the meeting-house and 
swept it twelve times the year Insuing, for 15 shilling," 
or later on, some, as John Lincoln, Wilbur Southworth, 
Elijah Clark and Nathan Bessey, agreed to "Ceep the 
House" each three months. In 1773 the church had 
"desired Benjamin Hatch, Saml Jenney, Timothy West, 
Elihu Shearman, Saml. Eldredge & Gideon Hammond to 
sit in fourth seat in the meeting-house and lead the Church 
and Congregation in singing Gods praises." In 1781 the 
precinct voted "For the accommodation of those that 
lead in singing the use of the two hind seats in the body 
seats, on the lower flower, both on the mens and Womans 
Sides, So long as the present method of Singing by Select 
numbers shall continue. And the said singers may erect 
doors at the entrances of Said Seets at their own Cost, if 
they think proper, but not to raise the lower flower higher 
than it now is." 

As to music in this old church, "W" commented as 
follows in the Enterprise: 

"No instruments of music were tolerated in church service. 
Some were opposed to singing except by the saints. Total 
depravity couldn't sing praises. Seth Barlow, senior, was very 
pious at that time, having been converted as he said by Elder 
Hix. (The Elder said it looked like his work.) He, Seth, could 
bear no instrument of music, not even a pitch pipe to pitch 
the tune. On hearing the sound of the pipe, which was some- 
thing like a graduation between a squeak and a schream, Seth 
left the church in high dudgeon. The next day Seth asked 
Noah Hammond how he thought they cast out devils in the 
old times. 'With a pitch pipe,' says Noah." 

The great gale of 1815 ' made some new provision for a 

1 "Saturday, Sept. 23rd. — The gale commenced early in the morn- 
ing and continued with increasing violence until near 12 o'clock. 

"At Rochester we are informed the damage done was considerable, 



220 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

meeting-house necessary, and the growth of "the shore," 
due to whaling and ship-building, made it inadvisable to 
restore the structure on the hill. Deacon Bowles, Capt. 
Gideon Hammond and Noah Hammond, having been 
appointed to provide a temporary place of worship, re- 
ported October 30, " They had agreed for the schoolhouse 
at the shore for thirty cents per Sabbath when it was 
occupied by Mr. LeBaron's People, the Precinct to pre- 
pair the Hous for meeting, & the Hous on Monday 
mornings to be put in order for Schooles," to which latter 
duty Gideon Barstow, Jr., was appointed to find some 
person. March 9, 1816, Precinct meeting was warned 
to be in this "Olive Branch Schoolhouse" (which is the 
present "Goodspeed Memorial," then standing at the 
southwest corner of Church and Pearl Streets) and here 
the precinct managed its affairs and worshiped until the 
new meeting-house at "the green " (now occupied as the 
Grange Hall) was ready. 

At first it had been voted " to give Deac'n Tobey $25 for 
\ acre and that the meeting-hous should be Sot on the 
N. W. Corner of his homestead " (which would have lo- 
cated it near the Lobdell house), and that it "should be 
Near the moddle that Thomas Snow presented." Very 
soon, however, they reconsidered both the site and the 
"moddle," and appointed William Moore, John A. 
LeBaron and Joseph Meigs, " to devise a plan for defray- 

the salt works belonging to Messrs. Clapp, Nye, Handy, and others with 
about 3000 bushels of salt were all destroyed. Several vessels were 
driven on the wharves at Sippican Harbour, and at Mattapoisett 3 or 4 
large vessels building on the stocks were driven into the street. The 
rope walk at that place is all carried away by the tide, the Rev. Mr. 
LeBaron's meeting-house unroofed, and several other buildings dam- 
aged." — New Bedford Mercury, Sept. 29, 1815. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 221 

ing the cost, etc." It was arranged by a sale of shares in 
the meeting-house, and January 31, 1816, agreement was 
made to purchase the lot of, one third acre, from Joseph 
Meigs for $50, and February 3rd contract was made with 
Israel Richmond and Calvin Shaw "to build and finish 
the house in manner and form to that at Titicut, North 
Middleborough," (which had been erected in 1808) for 
$1100. Jonathan Kinney agreed "to lath and plaster for 
$100, he finding and tending himself. ,, William Ben- 
nett ( ?) of Bedford was to glaze it, " he finding glass at 
$14 the Box, and to have Sd. a payn for setting," and 
Abel House had $2 for drawing down four loads of stone 
from the old meeting-house, which Thomas Snow had 
previously agreed to take down, saving the stuff in good 
order and drawing and straightening the nails for $45. 

This third meeting-house had a spire and a wide, 
straight platform across the front. The projection to the 
south and the existing belfry date from the time it was 
remodeled for the use of Mattapoisett Academy. Many 
now living recall the interior with its high pulpit, square 
pews, and gallery on three sides. It was evidently easier 
to care for than the old building. The task of keeping it 
was struck off to the lowest bidder, and George Denham 
secured the plum for $2.90 per year, agreeing that "the 
house be swept 6 times in the year." Later John A. 
LeBaron agreed to sweep it nine times in the year and 
was paid $3. In 1828 the job included "Keeping the 
key and making the fires," and Leonard Hammond under- 
took the task at $2.75. And thus, after ninety-two years 
of records, is the first mention made of any heat in the 
meeting-house. This people sat longer in the cold than 
they had been warmed since. 



222 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

The "Wretched boys," as some records term them, 
seemed to have required little attention at Mattapoisett. 
They are first mentioned when in 1740 Gideon South- 
worth " was chosen to have the oversight of the youth in 
the meeting-house on the Sabbath Day," and are not again 
alluded to until in 1826, when the precinct " Chose Nathan- 
iel Harlow, warden to see to the Boys and girls in the 
meetinghouse and that there be no behaviour unbecoming 
the Solemnities of Divine Worship; " and, evidently to 
give him the best range of observation, directed, "that 
he have the use of the middle pew in the front gallery 
next the window." 

In 1826 Mr. LeBaron, then in his eightieth year, went to 
the precinct committee and stated he was " very desirous 
that a Gospel Minister be settled in the Precinct in his 
day, and that he would relinquish all demands for pecuniary 
support being considered the senior pastor of the Church." 
Amittai B. Hammond, Eliakim Cannon, Abel Hows, 
Capt. Andrew Southworth, Wilson Barstow, Esq., and Mr. 
Abisha Rogers " were appointed to provide a candidate, 
and on December 12th and 13th of that year a council or- 
dained and installed Rev. Asahel Cobb as colleague 
pastor. He was the son of John and Anna Cobb of 
Abington. Dr. Robbins says of him: "He continued in 
the ministry here three years and a half, and his labors 
were blessed with a pleasing revival of religion." His 
salary had been fixed at $400, six cords of wood, and the 
improvement of the salt meadow. In April, 1829, Messrs. 
Eleazer Waterman, Ebenezer Cannon, and Calvin C. 
Cannon called on Mr. Cobb to say that his salary there- 
after would be $50 less, whereat he gave three months' 
notice and sought another field for his labors, locating 



The Church in the Second Precinct 223 

first at Sandwich and later with the First Church of New 
Bedford at Acushnet. He married May 21, 1834, Helen 
M. Hamblin, and had seven children. 1 He died in 1876 
and is interred at Sandwich. 

As to how the pulpit was supplied following Mr. 
Cobb, the best information is from a scrap of paper 
found in Minister LeBaron's portfolio. It reads: 

" 1830, Nov. 9, Mrs. LeBaron died. 
1831, Mar. 3, Mr. Clark here. 
May 6, ditto. 

July 6, Wm. (his son) taken sick ague fit. 
Aug. 2, Wm. very sick, 

12, Wm. died — Mr. Clark preacher on the 
occasion of W 7 m. death, 1 Cor. v. 55. 
Sept. 10, Mr. Clark leaves us. 

25, Thos. Robbins preached first sermon. 
Oct. 2, Mr. Robbins left us. 
21, Mr. Robbins arrived." 

The precinct records simply state that "Mr. Clark 
would stay for a season for $450 per year." Whence he 
came or whither he went does not appear. 

Thomas Robbins, above mentioned, was the nephew 
of Minister LeBaron, being the ninth child of Elizabeth 
the daughter of Dr. Lazarus LeBaron and her husband, 
Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Robbins, who was settled over the 
church in Norfolk, Conn., for fifty-two years prior to his 
death in 1813. There Thomas Robbins was born August 
11, 1777. He was fitted for college in his own home and 
at the age of fifteen was entered at Yale. His father was 
an early trustee of Williams College, and arranged that his 
son should take his senior year there and also be gradu- 
ated at Yale. So that Thomas Robbins has the perhaps 

1 Of whom were Wendell Cobb, Esq., the well-known lawyer, late 
of New Bedford, and Mr. George A. Cobb, now living at Lunds Corner. 



224 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

unique distinction of having his name stand as an alumnus 
on the general catalogues of both colleges, for the year 
1796. On January of that year, while at Williams, he 
began his diary, which he continued up to 1854. He 
occupied himself prior to 1803 in teaching, in fitting for 
the ministry, and in preaching in various Connecticut 
towns. In 1803 he went, in the service of the Connecticut 
Missionary Society, to the new settlement on the Western 
Reserve, Ohio. From this service he returned in 1806 
seriously broken in healtk He began preaching again 
in 1808 at East Windsor, Conn., continuing there until 
1827. For a year and a half he was settled at Stratford, 
Conn. He accepted a call and continued with the church 
at Mattapoisett from 1832 to 1844, being sole pastor after 
Mr. LeBaron's death in 1836. 

Mr. Robbins never was married. He was fifty-four 
years old when, in response to the request of this people, 
having deferred departure to attend the 3>BK meeting 
and dinner of Yale, he started from Stratford Saturday, 
September 17, 1831, for his long ride. He complained 
that his horse traveled heavily, but the following Thurs- 
day he arrived in town, and his " Uncle LeBaron having 
left Ins own house to reside with his daughter Meyhew," 
he put up with family of his cousin William, lately de- 
ceased. The following morning he "looked at a fine 
ship on the stocks," and remarked that the village had 
increased very much since he was here in 1824. He 
states in his diary also that " there is a noisy three days' 
meeting here of the Free Will Baptists." On Sabbath 
he spoke twice at the meeting-house to a congregation 
which he thought to be rather small but to appear well, 
and in the evening preached at a private house. He 



The Church in the Second Precinct 225 

went back again to Connecticut to prepare his things for 
removal, returning October 21, in time to see a fine, large 
ship launched the following morning. He preached the 
three usual times on the 23d, accepted Capt. Seth Free- 
man's invitation to board at his house, moved thither on 
Monday, and on Tuesday rode in the stage to Wareham 
to meet with the Old Colony Association of Ministers. 
He took pains to call on the widow of Rev. Noble Everett 
and returned to Mattapoisett Thursday in time to attend 
the funeral of a child, who died of the canker rash; thus 
beginning the record of infant mortality which contin- 
ued throughout his pastorate. The following week he 
preached at the ordination of Rev. Samuel Utley at North 
Rochester. Two weeks later he presided at the eccle- 
siastical council which ratified the separation of the 
Pacific (Trinitarian) church from Mr. Holmes's parish 
in New Bedford, and again six months later he preached 
the sermon for the dedication of the meeting-house of 
that new congregation. Like minister LeBaron he was 
"much improved in ecclesiastical Councils." 

February 22, 1832, he was in Boston, where was observed 
the Centennial celebration of Washington's Birthday. 
"Great firing and ringing of bells. At the State House 
heard a good oration of one hundred fifteen minutes. 
The prayers were poor. Attended a splendid Dinner 
given in Faneuil Hall to about six hundred guests." He 
tarried with his cousin Dr. Chandler Robbins, and re- 
ceived, as he says, polite treatment on going into the House 
of Representatives the following morning. He came 
home with a new kind of purchase, a "sharp metallic 
pen." He was in Boston again in May for the Ministerial 
Convention, and tarrying the night at the stage-house for 



226 Mattapolsett and Old Rochester 

an early call, he rode through to Mattapoisett in the day; 
"much fatigued," however. He spent some days in 
Plymouth, and made another visit back to Connecticut 
before his installation which occurred October 17, 1832. 
" This day being appointed," wrote Mr. LeBaron in " The 
Church's Book," "agreeably to a preceding agreement of 
the Church and Precinct for the Instalment of Rev. 
Thomas Robbins, the Council consisting of the Ministers 
and Delegates of the Churches of the Old Colony Asso- 
ciation met at the house of John A. LeBaron, 1 and after 
forming themselves into a Council and offering up prayer 
to Almighty God for his blessing and assigning to each 
one his part in the transaction, proceeded to the meeting- 
house where in a very solemn manner Rev. Mr. Robbins 
was installed as Minister of the Second Precinct, and 
Pastor of the Second Church of Christ in Rochester, and 
every part was performed greatly to the acceptance of the 
audience and it is believed acceptable to God, and we 
most earnestly pray that the blessing of God may accom- 
pany the ministry of his servant. N.B. Introductory 
prayer by P. G. Seabury, Sermon by S. Holmes, installing 
prayer by J. Bigelow, Charge by Oliver Cobb, Right 
Hand by Wm. Gould. Address to the People by Samuel 
Nott." 

The diary entry that day reads: "I was solemnly in- 
stalled the collegiate pastor of this people. All things 
appear favorably. All proceedings have been unani- 
mous. Mr. Holmes preached well on Isa. xxiv. 2. The 
meeting-house was very full and the singing fine. At 
evening we had a public temperance meeting. Mr. 
Gould delivered a good address. Fine weather." Prob- 
1 Being that of the late Col. Geo. M. Barnard, Jr. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 227 

ably the bell rope was lustily pulled that day, for it was 
an important occasion, and the church bell was a new 
thing and the first in town. Until August, 1832, in 
Mattapoisett precinct no pealing call had ever broken 
the stillness of the Sabbath morn. While the clergy had 
thus been busy at "the Green" with solemn ceremony, 
launching the new colleague into his work, around the 
shore, as usual, had re-echoed the sound of the mallet, 
the hammer and the saw, and just a week later "a fine 
live oak ship, over 400 tons," was let down off the stocks 
into the harbor. 

Before the month was out, Mr. Robbins moved down 
from Captain Freeman's with his two wagon-loads of effects 
to Nathan Crosby's, — which is at present the house of 
Bruce F. Shaw, on the east side of North Street. He 
had his chambers on the north side of the house, and here 
was his home throughout his stay in Mattapoisett. The 
old minister's grandson, Lemuel, made him a new pine 
bookcase, which he said was very good work, but not 
large enough for all his periodicals; and here, having 
settled his library, which then consisted of well above a 
thousand volumes, he called in "Uncle LeBaron" and 
other relatives and friends, who "much admired his 
chambers, library, etc." He himself said they were 
"good chambers but difficult to keep comfortable." In 
his accounts is an item of $3.50 for a new-fashioned warm- 
ing pan which he very suggestively presented to his land- 
lady. Sometimes even the ink froze in spite of his great 
stove, with its "duck floor cloth" beneath it, and the 
plentiful use of wood. To help prepare his fuel, took 
much of his time. Very often he writes, " Worked at my 
wood." Sometimes he carried up " thirty armfuls, twenty- 



228 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

five before noon," and we can seem to see the frail figure 
in knee-breeches, toiling, heavily laden, up the long flight 
of outside stairs which, until quite recently, connected 
those chambers of his with the middle of the yard below. 

He continued to wear " small clothes " as long as he 
lived, although the rest of the world had adopted panta- 
loons a good while before. Most who now remember 
Dr. Robbins says that he was the only person they ever 
saw who dressed in knee breeches. Once he wrote after 
a day of shopping, "I have difficulty in finding necker- 
chefs such as I wear." For a hat he paid $6, and for 
"new boots made for me of the best kind $10." Con- 
sidering that he was particular for nice apparel, his diary 
contains remarkably few references to clothes. Novem- 
ber 14 of one year, he writes, " Yesterday put on my flan- 
nel," and the following June 15, "Took off my flannel;" 
with nothing recorded as to the time between. One year, 
on the 26th of May, there is this pathetic entry: "Am 
not able to get off my flannel." 

The good man not only felt that the dignity of his 
position demanded a good appearance, but he also had a 
high sense of the respect due to the cloth. Little boys 
whom he met on the street were expected to remove their 
caps, and girls to politely curtsey. Having thus shown 
their good breeding, the children found no one who took 
more notice of them or who was more heartily interested 
in their welfare. He laid in especial supplies of figs and 
sweet crackers in anticipation of their calls to wish him 
"A Happy Independence." Girls used to help him dust 
his books, and he loaned to them suitable volumes. One 
of these girls was Wilson Barstow's daughter, Elizabeth, 
who later became the wife of Richard Henry Stoddard. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 229 

Dr. Robbins says in his diary of June 8, 1833, "Received 
a present of a valuable box from young Elizabeth Bar- 
stow." 

It is interesting to quote in this connection what Mr. 
Stoddard in his " Recollections " says of this early friend- 
ship: 

"She had one friend however, a notable man in his way, 
though he was only the minister of Mattapoisett, where he was 
considered a queer old fellow. This was the Rev. Thomas 
Robbins, who was known to antiquarians as the author of 
"An Historical Survey of the First Planters of New England" 
and of several sermons preached on special occasions. He 
took a fancy to Elizabeth Barstow when she was a child, and 
gave her the range of his library which was a large one for a 
country minister to have, and which consisted chiefly of the 
classic works of the eighteenth century. 

"She read Addison, Steele, and Dr. Johnson, the Tattler, 
The Rambler, the Spectator, the delectable writings of Fielding,' 
Richardson, Smollett and Sterne, — 'Tristam Shandy,' 'Pere- 
grine Pickle,' 'Pamela,' and 'Tom Jones.' She read 'Sully's 
Memoirs' and the comedies of Sheridan, and if the comedies of 
Vanburgh and Congreve were there (but it is to be hoped not) 
she read those too. She read hundreds, thousands of volumes 
in the good doctor's library, which was to her a liberal educa- 
tion, and indeed, the only education she ever had." 

Of this library, John Warner Barber, — who on July 
% 1832, had walked about the town with Dr. Robbins, — 
said in his Massachusetts Historical Collections: "Rev. 
Thomas Robbins, D.D., the successor of Mr. LeBaron, 
possesses, it is believed, the most valuable private 
library in the State. It consists of about 3000 volumes, 
of which more than 300 are folios. The principal sub- 
jects on which these volumes treat are theology and his- 
tory, and many of them are quite ancient. In this col- 
lection there are 4000 pamphlets some of which are very 



230 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

rare. Dr. R. has also an extensive collection of coins, 
manuscripts, etc. The library is carefully arranged in 
neat and elegant bookcases." Dr. Robbins himself says 
that he had over 4000 volumes before he left Mattapoisett. 
May 31, 1839, he looked over his coins and found he had 
596, including in the copper a Roman denarius found in 
England, presented him by Capt. Henry Huttleston of 
Fairhaven. In May, 1840, he made a "very important 
addition" to his library — "Walton's Polyglot Bible, 
purchased of Mrs. Holmes, relict of Dr. Abiel Holmes of 
Cambridge, eight massive folios in fine order, for $160.00." 
A little later his cousin, Joseph Battel, 1 sent him from 
New York "Boyers' splendid edition of Hume's History 
as a present, — having procured it at my suggestion at 
auction for $100. Ten large folios, printing, paper, 
plates, and binding of the richest kind." No wonder 
when his new carpet came he had to have the help of 
Waterman and Prentice Crosby to assist him putting 
the carpet down and the books up. 

It seems evident that Stoddard, who, when he was 
sparking Elizabeth Barstow, was referred to in local 
doggerel, then privately circulated, as 

"A dude from York, with brains very small, 
Who attended a dance in Eaton Hall," 

even in his later years knew little of this " country minister " 
other than as was related to his books. Thomas Robbins 
was probably in ecclesiastical, historical, and educational 
circles the widest known of any man who ever went in 
and out before this people. He had already edited the 

1 The merchant of New York and of Norfolk, Connecticut, and the 
giver of Battel Chapel to Yale University. 




-^v^X^--0-^-^»--»_- ? 



The Church in the Second Precinct 231 

first and second editions of Mather's "Magnalia," and 
had published his "Historical View of the First Planters 
of New England." While at Mattapoisett he received 
a diploma and gifts from the Rhode Island Historical 
Society, before whom he had delivered his lecture on 
"The Middle Ages;" was elected a member of the Con- 
necticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Na- 
tional Institution of Science of Washington. He was in 
correspondence with the Royal Society of Northern An- 
tiquities of Copenhagen, and John Quincy Adams and 
President Josiah Quincy were appointed by the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society to confer with him on a plan 
he had proposed for a comprehensive history of the 
United States. 

He attended the meetings of the Antiquarian Society 
with much regularity. For that purpose, October 22, 
1834, he took his first ride on a railroad. From Boston 
"took the railroad car at two o'clock and rode in seventy- 
five minutes to Framingham, twenty-one miles, — the 
whole scene is a wonder. Rode in the stage to Worces- 
ter." November 2, 1839, returning from Hartford, he 
took the cars from Providence for Taunton. "At Mans- 
field in changing cars, having lost the points of compass 
on a cloudy day, I took the wrong one and got ten 
miles, perhaps, toward Boston before I found my mis- 
take. Went on." Not very amiss after all, for "At 
Boston found most unexpectedly a box containing a fine 
copy of the Bishop's Bible, a present from the Duke of 
Sussex, England, with a good letter from his Royal High- 
ness. This was in answer to my application recom- 
mended through Mr. Buckingham last winter." 

When the Massachusetts State Board of Education was 



232 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

formed in 1837, with Horace Mann as its chairman, Dr. 
Robbins was appointed by Governor Edward Everett a 
member of the board. In that capacity he appeared at 
examinations of Bridgewater Normal School, or of the 
"excellent female school" at Norton, or walked in pro- 
cession with the Legislature (and so with Capt. Zach. 
Barstow as representative) at the opening of the General 
Court for 1838. August 28 of the same year his diary 
reads: "At evening attended our weekly prayer meeting, 
after which set out on a journey and rode to Bedford. 
Slept at a tavern. 29th: — Was called early and took 
the stage at three o'clock and rode to Taunton, took 
cars and rode to Boston. Rode to Cambridge and went 
into the Commencement exercises after they had begun. 
The speaking was good and a very full house. A fine 
day. In the honorary degrees my name was read most 
unexpectedly for a D.D. I know not by whose recom- 
mendation. I bless God for the favor." 

Dr. Robbins, as was his father, was for some years a 
trustee of Williams College. August, 1843, he was being 
"very kindly entertained at President Hopkins's. At- 
tended an interesting meeting of the Alumni. I am the 
senior present. Attended the public services. The presi- 
dent delivered a very good address respecting the college. 
I delivered mine. Too long — an hour and forty-five 
minutes, — but kindly heard." At Plymouth, Fore- 
father's Day, 1838, he had done better, — " Delivered my 
discourse, about sixty-five minutes," and afterwards 
" made a short extempore address to the Standish Guards 
to whom the ladies had presented an elegant standard." 

He presided often at ecclesiastical councils, laid the 
corner-stone of Mr. Holmes's new "stone church" in New 



The Church in the Second Precinct 

Bedford, presided at the ordination of Rev. Homer Bar- 
rows at West Middleborough, assisted to dedicate the 
Naskatucket meeting-house, and the like. Visiting New 
York in 1844, he found "Wall Street" a "great curi- 
osity." Preached in the Old Tabernacle in Brooklyn, 
and came home with a special commission to secure a 
piece of Forefathers' Rock for the projected Church of 
the Pilgrims. He was very constant in his attendance 
at the General Ministerial Convention, and regular in 
his services to the Pastoral Association. 

He seldom came back from these journeys abroad with- 
out either primers for the Sabbath School, or copies of 
the "Mountain Miller," the "Dairyman's Daughter," or 
the "Young Cottager;" and with these tracts he walked 
to Tripps Mills and made calls (not omitting the aged 
Mrs. Hovey, the minister's daughter-in-law), or rode to 
Aucoot or New Boston, or perhaps walked to the Necks 
for two days of calls, sleeping at Captain Southworth's. 
When the "fine new ship Joseph Meigs" sailed, he fitted 
them out with books and tracts, and did the same when 
Mr. Crosby, with more than fifty other men, sailed for 
Louisiana to get live oak. Another time he went on a 
whale brig and supplied the men fully with Bibles. He 
drove sometimes with " Dr. Southard " in his chaise, and 
often he ministered to the sick, as when "called in the 
morning to visit my good neighbor (at William L. R. 
Gifford's present summer home), Mr. Jonathan Dexter, 
in a state of great pain and apparently insensible. Hurt 
by a great blow on the back of his head in the woods." 
Or again, the mercury standing at 90°, he "walked in 
the heat up to Solomons and saw sick Mary." Not 
of strong physique, the heat often made him "languid." 



234 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

At such times he "slept on a mattress and wore summer 
dress." August 1, 1837, the thermometer stood at 90° 
and he felt quite feeble, so he read Sampson Agonistes 
without leaving his chair, worked at his books and wrote 
the inscription for his Uncle LeBaron's gravestone. 

Other days he read Hudibras, Prescott's Ferdinand and 
Isabella, Colden's Five Nations, D'Aubigne's Reformation, 
Lawrence's Natural History of Man, Mrs. Jameson's 
Female Sovereigns, and once it was a novel, "Miriam 
Coffin." One very stormy day he "read the Bible and 
Bony's Court," the scriptures being an antidote for the 
Harper's Family Library story of "that seat of corrup- 
tion." Another time it was an account of Philip's War, 
and of that chief he added: "I think he was not in- 
ferior to the early Grecian Heroes." At some periods 
he had "a scholar;" — as his young cousin Francis LeB. 
Mayhew. He usually spent considerable time writing and 
transcribing his sermons, unless, as he put it, he was 
"hindered by company." Of an evening he "attended 
the Lyceum," or went to Mr. Sanborn's lecture on Egypt 
and Babylon. Occasionally he had "polite company," 
or went over to Bedford, and "called on Mr. James 
Arnold and had particular conversation with him in his 
grotto." New Year's Day, '39, he had "many calls from 
children and others. Dined and took tea at Mr. W. 
Barstow's. At evening attended a spelling school. Was 
up late." 

There was some slackness in the observance of Fast 
Day, even as early as 1833, for Dr. Robbins records, 
"Meetings well attended. A part of the people were 
off playing ball according to their usual practice here." 

Independence day was his especial celebration of the year. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 235 

In 1834, he says: "We had a handsome celebration. 
There has not been one here for many years. The chil- 
dren were all out with their teachers and several soldiers 
of the Revolution. I delivered my address. A Baptist 
made the last prayer and a Universalist from Sippican 
read the Declaration. He did not sit down in the pulpit. 
Dined out. All appeared to be much pleased." Next 
year Mr. Bigelow came down from the Center to give the 
address, and to the six ministers present, Mr. Leonard 
Hammond (at his tavern, the Plymouth County House) 
gave a very hospitable dinner. "There was a very hand- 
some procession, military, Sabbath school, — Revolu- 
tionary soldiers, etc." With these latter, however, Cap- 
tain Wallis did not march, for Dr. Robbins had been to 
New Boston, the day before, to attend his funeral, and 
his body lay newly buried in the Hammond cemetery. 

In 1839, Mr. Bryant (teacher and Baptist preacher) 
read the Declaration. Mr. Taylor (Universalist) de- 
livered the address. Dr. Robbins prayed and addressed 
the children, all was concluded by a tea party in a 
grove; and the "shrubbery" was left in the meeting-house 
over Sunday. Next year, " the Sabbath schools were out 
with escort. Mr. Corydon from Bedford delivered a 
fine address, and we had with our new organ excellent 
music." Of this instrument, his diary remarks on the 
previous Sabbath, " Our new organ performed and well. It 
is certainly a very fine one, made by one of our mechanics, 
David Cannon," — the doctor's next-door neighbor. 

On Fourth of July, 1841, Dr. Robbins, with many, 
sailed around to Sippican where was a procession and 
a dinner in a grove. In 1842, he "rode to Bedford and 
dined with the Washingtonians and Guards of Matta- 



236 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

poisett and Bedford." The next year he spent at home, 
and "the children called for salutations of Independence, 
104 in number." In '44, some youths and older persons 
came also, so there were about 160, but each one had 
their cake and fig. Washington's Birthday, 1842, he 
states: "The new military company formed here, the 
* Mattapoisett Guards' called for me and we marched 
to the meeting house and I delivered my address to a full 
house. Dined at Esq. Meigs's." 

Another company with which Dr. Robbins had rela- 
tions was the "Cold Water Army," which he organized 
in 1841, of children between eight and fifteen who had 
taken a solemn pledge. Two hundred and seventy were 
mustered in, and when the badges arrived from Boston, 
he says his army almost overran him. The last mention 
of this band is August 19, 1842, when "We had our 
temperance celebration. I received a number of ad- 
ditions to our Cold Water Army. We had a procession 
with the Military Guards and music, and Mr. Hathaway, 
of Assonet, a reformed inebriate, gave a good lecture. We 
went to a grove and had a good collation. At evening 
we had a lecture from Mr. Colburn, of Salem, late a 
drunken sailor; pretty ordinary." 

At another time he rode to meet with the school com- 
mittee at Rochester and " attended a Temperance lecture 
from Mr. Taylor, seamans 5 preacher at Boston. A 
sample of eccentricity." Although he stood firm for 
temperance, his conscience did not forbid him from giv- 
ing the feeble Mrs. Mayhew a bottle of the best port 
wine. Apparently he did not object to the circus, — 
especially if he had a free ticket. "July 14, 1843, there 
was a famous exhibition here of a caravan of wild beasts. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 237 

I attended by invitation. About six hundred persons 
present." The good doctor could tell a fish story if the 
occasion required: Diary, April 14, 1843, "This has been 
a great herring day. The herrings have come suddenly, 
of good quality and an immense number. A very great 
blessing to the town. It is said they have taken to-day 
70,000." 

He did not forget to note other events of general interest 
in his record. September 21, 1834, "Attended the funeral 
of Mr. Cannon's child. The first buried in the new bury- 
ing ground. Endeavored to consecrate the ground in the 
public service." December 11, same year, "The Univer- 
salist meetinghouse has got a clock." March 21, 1838, 
"Last night our lighthouse was lighted for the first time." 
He rarely attended town meeting unless " by the particu- 
lar desire of the people," or some school matter required 
his presence. He was a hard-working member of the 
Rochester school committee. Riding or walking he often 
visited schools in "Orcoot," the Necks, in Sippican, or 
the Church neighborhood; and sometimes in the village, if 
it appeared that the teacher there was a "flagellant and 
whipped rashly." Much of his time was taken in draft- 
ing a scheme for a grammar school, in meetings to examine 
teachers, or in tabulating returns required by the State. 

Despite the fact that so much of his effort was expended 
in public concerns, and in the building up of his library, 
Dr. Robbins was ever the faithful pastor of his church. 
He not only ministered to his parish, supplied his pulpit, 
attended the monthly concert, and worked, as he said, 
" laboriously " for the Sabbath school (which in 1834 had 
154 pupils and in 1840 over 200), but he also held meet- 
ings on the Necks, at Cannonville, Pine Islands or Tripps 



238 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Mills, and sometimes he preached on a Sunday evening 
at Isaac Bowles's or at Deacon Amittai Hammond's. 
Sometimes at the wharf he held service on board a whale- 
ship about to set sail. 

Revival seasons occurred in 1834, when simultaneous 
meetings were held evenings at the Neck and in the 
vestry (in the east end of the Mattapoisett house), as 
well as sunrise meetings at Cannon ville; in 1840, when 
extra meetings were held every morning at nine, in which 
Rev. Mr. Gould, of Fairhaven, and Rev. Leander Cobb, 
of Sippican assisted, and again in 1842. On Fast Day, 
1842, he says: "After meeting I baptized Isaiah Sears by 
immersion in the harbor. The first time in my life, and 
I never saw it done but once, in Ohio. It was less 
unpleasant than I expected. Felt no particular incon- 
venience." The following Sabbath seventeen persons 
joined the church, and others in June. In all, during 
Dr. Robbins's pastorate, seventy-six were added to the 
church. There was no change of deacons and only 
one instance of church discipline. 

Dr. Robbins was instrumental in procuring the pres- 
ent communion service to replace the one of pewter 
which had been acquired when Minister LeBaron began 
his service in 1772, the tankards of which had been pre- 
sented by Mary Hammond and Dr. Lazarus LeBaron. 
October 1, 1835, the pastor "suggested to the church 
the expediency of improving our communion furniture, 
particularly the cups," and the church appointed Capt. 
Seth Freeman, Dea. Nathaniel A. Crosby, and Capt. 
Allen Dexter as committee. The church record states: 
"The cups were procured Mar. 16, 1836. They were 
made at New Bedford, nine, the cost $10.35 each. The 



The Church in the Second Precinct 239 

charge for making was $4 each. Two were paid for 
from the church treasury, seven were given by in- 
dividuals." 

Meanwhile the prudential affairs of the parish pro- 
ceeded with much regularity. In 1832 the precinct 
voted that " we use our influence and exertions to raise by 
subscription $450 to be paid to Rev. Mr. Robbins for 
his labors with us the ensuing year and that the new sub- 
scription paper which shall be drawn shall be deposited 
in the store of Capt. Joshua Cushing," who had then 
retired from the sea to his home on the east side of Cannon 
Street; and whose sword, which he captured in an exciting 
struggle from the pirates of the Mediterranean, is now 
to be seen in Pilgrim Hall at Plymouth. In a later year 
the paper was placed at Harlow & LeBaron's store. Mr. 
Robbins's salary continued at the figure named, with the 
addition of three or six cords of wood "as it lays on the 
Neck," throughout his pastorate. 

In 1836, Abner Harlow was chosen to see if the bell 
could not be rung for less than $16; and in 1837 it was 
decided to have an agent to find seats for strangers, 
and James Barstow was appointed. At the same meet- 
ing it was voted "not expedient to build new or en- 
large the meeting house but to repair the steps, doors, 
and windows, and paint the top of the steeple and round 
where it was leaded, and move the chimney to the north 
end and lead the pipe into the same." But in this 
then rapidly growing community this building at "the 
Green" was becoming much too small. February 2, 1839, 
Benjamin Barstow, as moderator, appointed Andrew 
Southworth, John A. LeBaron, Seth Freeman, Wilson 
Barstow, and Joshua Cushing a committee on location; 



240 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

and a month later they reported "a new meeting house 
cannot go below the hill by the residence of the late 
Deacon Tobey if there is to be a vestry under it." They 
advised, however, no action that year, and in 1841 the 
same committee reported in favor of "a Site or Lot on 
Universalist Street in back of Capt. Samuel Sturtevant 's," 
and therefore about where the Doctor Sparrow house now 
stands. In this matter, however, the precinct was not 
required further to act. 

It was decided to build the new house by taking 
shares and a proprietors' organization was formed. Oc- 
tober 9, 1841, Gideon Barstow deeded the present 
meeting-house lot, for $400, to Ebenezer Cannon, Caleb 
L. Cannon, Isaac N. Barrows, Benjamin Bacon, Na- 
than Crosby, Rowland Howland, Edward Bucll, Wil- 
son Barstow, Seth Freeman, Leonard Hammond, Arvin 
Cannon, Samuel Sturtevant, Jr., John A. LeBaron, Jesse 
Hammond, Jr., Lemuel LeBaron, Solomon K. Eaton, 
Gideon Barstow, William Merithew, Nathaniel A. Crosby, 
Henry Barstow, Benjamin Barstow, 2d, Levi Snow, 
Charles C. Beals, Nathan Cannon, Newton Southworth, 
Peleg Pierce, Martin Hall, Henry P. Young, James 
Barstow, Ezra E. Washburn, Nathaniel Clark, Peleg 
Gifford, James Allen, Thomas C. Hammond, Gideon 
Hammond, William B. Rogers, Andrew Southworth, 
Hallet M. Cannon, Mary Leach, Abner Hall, Zaccheus 
M. Barstow, Matthew Mayhew, Reuben Dexter, Allen 
Dexter, John Dexter, Rogers L. Barstow, Prentis Crosby, 
Elnathan H. Cushing, Abner Harlow, Weston Howland, 
David H. Cannon, Edward H. Willkey, Waterman Crosby, 
Wyatt Snow, Stephen Snow, Lot. N. Jones, Seth P. Ames, 
Noah C. Sturtevant, James Coleman, James Cannon, 



'"H« 


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S5 Sf 

£ . | 

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The Church in the Second Precinct 241 

Nathan H. Barstow, Richard Mitchell, Amittai B. Ham- 
mond, Thomas Nelson, L. N. Jones. 

October 28, 1841, the diary states: "Our people have 
broken ground for a new meeting house." May 10, 1842: 
"Yesterday the people commenced laying the wall for 
the new meeting house. " May 21: "Afternoon I laid the 
cornerstone of the fourth meeting house for this people, 
1736, 1772, 1816, 1842. Delivered my address. We had 
a procession, etc. Mr. Cobb (Sippican) was present and 
assisted." October 31: "Had a meeting in the vestry 
and in a manner took our leave of that room." Novem- 
ber 4 : " Observed this as a Humiliation Day in reference 
to the removal of our place of worship. We had a prayer 
meeting at sunrise, one at ten o'clock. In the afternoon 
Mr. Cobb preached very well. We had an evening meet- 
ing all in our new lecture room. The first service in 
the house was prayer — 'Our Father' — etc." Sunday, 
Nov. 6: "We took our leave of the house of worship 
where this people have assembled for 26 years." No- 
vember 9, 1842: "Dedication of our new meeting house 
to God and his rich grace. Mr. Maltby * preached well. 
I made the dedicatory prayer. Dr. Cobb, Mr. Bige- 
low, and Mr. Briggs (the ministers of Rochester town) 
performed parts. The house was very full. Afternoon 
the pews were sold. The cost of the house and lot ($450) 
is about $6200, carpetings and lamps included. The 
lecture room, with the raising the earth, etc, gratuitous 
about $620. Pews 74, six free, 56 sold including choice 
money will nearly pay the bills, 12 remain, all wanted. 2 

1 Rev. Erastus Maltby, a native of Northfield, Conn., a graduate of 
Yale, 1821, Pastor at Taunton from 1836 until his death in 1883. 

2 A curious deed for one of these pews is dated March 22, 1849, and 



242 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

The house was much admired. The most of our Asso- 
ciation were present. At evening Mr. Barrows preached 
very well," and on the Saturday following the church 
bell was removed to the new house. 

Dr. Robbins set out many trees in the streets of Matta- 
poisett. Ash trees seemed to be his favorites. December 
16, 1842, he records: "Rode early to the Neck and had 
two very fine ash trees taken up and brought here and set 
in front of the meeting house. They are much alike, 
forty-two feet high and eight inches in diameter. Had 
good help." For these trees he paid Mr. Gideon Ham- 
mond seven dollars. The following summer was exceed- 
ingly hot and the good man was worried as to his trees. 
July 22, he watered them laboriously. Next day, Sunday, 
"at half past five we had a special season of prayer on 
account of the drought. Mr. Sullings and the Baptists 
and the Universalists with us. It was a solemn session." 
Next day "in the afternoon it pleased God to send us a 
most greatful shower. It was pretty violent and not long 
but a great blessing. Our village seems to have been the 
center of it. I took stage and rode to Wareham. But 
little rain here." 

The doctor's errand at Wareham was to meet with the 
Association, and on the following day they examined 

is that of "John T. Atsatt of Rochester, President of the Mattapoisett 
and California Mechanical and Mining Company, in consideration of 
$40 paid by Josiah D. & Noah C. Sturtevant, — a certain pew in the 
new Cong'l Meeting House with all and singular the furniture of said 
pew, No. 46, together with a proportionate share of the lot of land on 
which said house stands; and also one twenty-second of the Riderian 
School-room under said house, and other privileges in the vestry of said 
house, with all the privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging 
to said pew." — Plymouth Deeds, Book 290, page 25. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 243 

and licensed Mr. Thacher, of Dartmouth, who, although 
they then little thought it, would within less than eighteen 
months sit as a member of that Association, as pastor of 
the Mattapoisett church, in place of Dr. Robbins. 

The bustling village was then growing fast, and was 
ambitious to be up with the times. It had become less 
the fashion for a minister to locate with a people for life, 
and here was settled a little old man who refused to 
conform his dress to the modern notion, and who when 
he mounted into the new broad pulpit seemed, in the 
minds of some of the congregation, to be curiously out of 
place in the brand new modern meeting-house. His figure 
was more in keeping with sounding boards, and the 
square high-backed pews. His thoughts inclined to the 
past. He was of reputation as an antiquarian. Would 
not some new licensee better serve this growing maritime 
parish ? 

It needed some excuse for a change; but a very little 
tidbit well twisted on the tongue would perhaps suffice; 
and being thus minded various of the matrons whose zeal 
was great in public concerns, and in their neighbors' af- 
fairs, proceeded to watch out, and to hold their ears to 
the ground. Pretty soon they thought they detected a 
slight concussion, with the center of the disturbance near 
the Neck. March 25, 1843, Dr. Robbins writes, "Had 
a piece of unpleasant intelligence." And on the 30th, 
" My brethren called on me. At evening attended an in- 
formal meeting of most of the church, and they voted 
unanimously on the late slander with which I have been 
abused, that they received my statement as correct and 
that they were fully satisfied. They were faithful breth- 
ren." He said nothing, however, about the sisters. 



244 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

December 13, he writes, "My people are in an un- 
pleasant state;" and later in the month, "Several of my 
people called on me and presented a petition relative to 
my removal. — I fear there may be a division among my 
people." In February, 1844, a meeting was warned "to 
see if the precinct will continue the Rev. Thomas Robbins 
their Pastor." The meeting adjourned for four weeks and 
then without action adjourned sine die. But the pastor 
knew his parish was divided. His intent had been to 
spend his life with this people in like manner as had 
his predecessor. He thought on it; he prayed over it, 
and when his brother Francis, who was over a church 
in Connecticut, visited in New Bedford, he talked it with 
him, and his brother thought it best that he leave. 

Dr. Robbins had before this had letters from friends and 
from various institutions, especially Williams College, in 
regard to the disposal of his library; and at this troubled 
time came a very alluring proposition through Hon. Henry 
Barnard, of Hartford, of an arrangement by which the 
Connecticut Historical Society would eventually come into 
possession of his books, and Dr. Robbins himself would 
become the Society's librarian, on a stipulated salary, of 
nearly double the amount he was then receiving at Matta- 
poisett, through the remaining years of his active life. 

He decided to accept this arrangement and immediately 
thereafter he requested a precinct meeting and desired 
that he be given $200 and the expense be paid of removing 
his library to Connecticut. This was voted unanimously, 
and the amount raised by the subscriptions of about two- 
thirds of the congregation. At his request a church 
council was called, which sat on August 6, and voted dis- 
mission on the ground of mutual agreement of the parties. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 245 

"Many people," he writes, "seem much tried at the pros- 
pect of my removal." September 8, 1844, "Preached my 
farewell sermon on Matthew xvi. 18, in the afternoon to 
a large assembly. Took a brief review of my ministry in 
this place. A very pleasant day. Had a solemn meeting. 
Took notice of the late death of the aged Mr. Jesse 
Hammond. A very industrious, just and good man." 

Monday morning the minister was very busy preparing 
for his removal. He had engaged a vessel to take his 
goods around to Hartford, and his library had been packed 
into over forty great boxes. Tuesday there was "a con- 
fused scene " getting things on board. Wednesday morn- 
ing (11th), "Worked laboriously at my effects and got 
them on board a vessel which sailed for Hartford in the 
afternoon." And as the sun drew nearer to the tops of 
the pines on the ridge at the west, and the shadows length- 
ened toward Cannonville Hill, we can seem to see the 
quaint figure of Thomas Robbins, leaning on his cane, 
out by the end of the wharf, his back to the village and his 
new meeting-house; watching the little vessel bearing his 
dearly loved treasure, steer first southeast, and then turn 
down the bay to head out to the open sea. 

When he came up toward the street, caulkers and joiners 
would have bowed or spoken respectfully. The sailors 
and captains ashore would have greeted him kindly, for 
the whalemen felt better to have his Bibles and tracts 
aboard ship, and when in from the voyage they liked to 
find his well-known figure as a land mark among the new 
faces on the streets. They brought him foreign coins, 
shells and coral; battle-axes and curios from the south 
seas, and these he cherished with his shot-gourd from the 
Mayflower, and his piece of Martin Luther's table. It is 



246 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

said that not long after his departure, one of these whalers 
coming in, the captain inquired for the minister, and being 
told the recent happenings, broke out in language more 
suited to the open ocean than to the printed page and called 
down all the anathemas of heaven upon those who had 
caused the good man to go away. 

September 13, 1844, Dr. Robbins wrote: "Paid Mr. 
White, Mr. Baker, Rogers Barstow, and Mr. Crosby. 
Balanced all pecuniary accounts. At noon took the stage, 
left Mattapoisett and rode to New Bedford. Took cars 
and rode to Boston. Much fatigued with many labors. 
May God in mercy remember my people now destitute 
of a pastor for the first time in more than seventy years." 
The Sabbath following he tarried with his brother in 
Enfield, finding his surtout lost there on his last journey, 
and on the 16th he was in Hartford anxiously awaiting 
the arrival of Captain Baker and his vessel. On the 19th 
all came safely, and several truck loads of books were 
carried up to the Athenaeum ; where for ten years thereafter 
Thomas Robbins filled the office of Librarian. 

Dr. Henry R. Stiles wrote in the Round Table of Jan- 
uary 6, 1866 (quoted but in part): 

"The old librarian was the last of a line of New England 
Divines. He had been a settled pastor for a good portion of 
his life and was a good writer of sermons. A studious man by 
nature, books were not so much a luxury as a necessity to him. 
It was a pleasant arrangement this by which the books which 
he had spent so great a portion of his life in collecting should 
thus repay his loving care by giving to his old age the little 
comforts which it needed. 

"Antiquaries Hall was a rare and fitting shrine for such a 
character. Old portraits, old chairs and chests out of the May- 
flower, Captain Miles Standish's dinner pot, Indian relics, worm- 
eaten manuscripts, old battle flags, hacked, haggled and rent, 



The Church in the Second Precinct 247 

and scraps of ancient costume were the appropriate surround- 
ings of this old librarian with his small clothes and knee buckles, 
and his white silk stockings or white top boots with their silken 
tassels. 

"Here old age deepened insensibly the mellow shadows of 
. life, death wooed him so gently that he knew it not, his memory 
failed, his beloved books alone were able to retain, and then 
only for a moment, his wandering thoughts. An assistant 
was procured for him, but the old man scarcely knew the 
change. He lingered on until September 13, 1856, when he 
passed peacefully away at the home of his niece Mrs Elizabeth 
(Robbins) Allen in the town of Colebrook, Connecticut, at the 
age of 79." > 

Following the pastorate of Mr. Robbins the history of 
the Second Precinct in Rochester took on a new aspect. 
What might be termed the patriarchal system with its 
lifelong pastorates gave place to the more modern custom 
of an acting pastor supplying the pulpit for a short term 
of years. "Dr. Robbins's new meeting house" still 
stands, and persons now living can review in memory 
the sixty-three years since this new era began. Its history 
is not greatly out of the ordinary and need be outlined but 
briefly. 

In November, 1844, Mr. Isaiah Thacher, who was a 
native of Dartmouth, and who had been graduated from 
Union College in 1841, having preached two Sabbaths, 
was invited to supply the pulpit for twelve months at a 
salary of $600. He accepted and was duly installed 
by Council, Christmas Day, 1844, and continued as 
pastor until dismissed in 1849, when he immediately 
accepted the pastorate of the Central Congregational 

1 The funeral occurred at the Centre Church, Hartford, and the 
Historical Society, having first listened to a memorial address at its 
rooms by the Rev. Joel Hawes, attended in a body. 



248 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Church, Middleboro, who had that year erected their 
present house of worship. The precinct seemed to be 
concerned during this time mainly with the circulating of 
various kinds of subscription papers. Edward Buell had 
one to collect "to defray the church's housekeeping,' ' 
and if you met Rowland Howland, his was for a new stove 
pipe, to be preferably of copper. 

Mr. Thacher is said to have preached good stiff orthodox 
doctrine, and it appears that members who were " doubt- 
ful on the doctrine of total depravity and eternal punish- 
ment " were called up to give account. His successor, 
Mr. Mather, also took a vigorous hold on church dis- 
cipline, and those who forsook communion, "habitually 
misrepresented facts," "patronized the ball-room," or 
kept livery stables open on Sunday, received censure. 
The last record of church discipline, other than the 
mere erasure of a name, occurred under Mr. Parsons 
in 1861. 

November, 1850, the precinct had voted to install Rev. 
Wm. L. Mather, offering a salary of $500, and appointing 
Alexander Cannon treasurer and collector and Charles C. 
Beals to solicit money for "contingent expenses: " and 
these did so well that at the end of the year the balance of 
$11 was paid to Solomon K. Eaton "for the improvement 
of singing." In 1855 it was voted "the congregation be 
requested to sing with the choir the last hymn in the fore 
and afternoon." The stone posts with chains, which 
now enclose two sides of the meeting-house lot, were set 
by William Taylor in the fall of 1851. Mr. Mather dwelt 
in the house now the home of Mrs. Wealthy A. Cross, 
and also at Cannonville. He was dismissed by council 
in 1855, — and in November of that year he and his wife 



The Church in the Second Precinct 249 

Amanda were granted letters to the church in Ann Arbor, 
Mich. 

In September Rev. Charles Livingstone was installed 
pastor, at a salary of $800. He was the son of Neil 
Livingstone and Agnes Hunter, of Blantyre, in Scotland, 
and consequently was the younger brother of David 
Livingstone, the African missionary and explorer. Of 
Charles, W. G. Blaikie in his Personal Life of David 
Livingstone, Harpers, 1881, page 88, says: 

"In 1839, when David Livingstone was in England, Charles 
became earnest about religion. A strong desire sprang up in 
his mind to obtain a liberal education. Not having the means 
to get this at home he was advised by David to go to America 
and endeavor to obtain admission to one of the colleges there 
where the students support themselves by manual labor. To 
help him in this David sent him five pounds, being the whole 
of his quarter's allowance in London. On landing in New 
York, after selling his box and bed, Charles found his whole 
stock of cash to amount to £2, 13*. Qd. Purchasing a loaf 
and a piece of cheese as viaticum, he started for a college at Ober- 
lin, seven hundred miles off, where Dr. Finney was President. 
He contrived to get to the college without having ever begged. 
In the third year he entered on the theological course with a 
view to becoming a missionary. He did not wish, and never 
could agree as a missionary, to hold an appointment from an 
American Society on account of the relation of the American 
Churches to slavery; therefore he applied to the London Mis- 
sionary Society. The Directors declined to appoint Charles 
Livingstone without a personal visit, which he could not afford 
to make. This circumstance led him to accept a pastorate in 
New England, where he remained until 1857, when he came 
to this country and joined his brother in the Zambesi Expedi- 
tion. Afterwards he was appointed H. M. Consul at Fernando 
Po, but being always delicate, he succumbed to the climate 
of the country and died a few months after his brother, on 
his way home in October, 1873." 

He appears as joint author with his brother in an account 



250 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

of the Zambesi expedition: on which journey Dr. Living- 
stone took his party twenty miles off their regular route 
that they might see the grand Victoria Falls, and " Charles 
Livingstone, who had seen Niagara, gives the preference 
to Mosi-oa-tunya." And it is evident that, at that 
time, he was the only person in the world able to make 
that comparison. He had left Mattapoisett abruptly, 
and sent back but little information of his plans or move- 
ments either to his parish or his family. Various com- 
mittees waited on Mrs. Livingstone, but she could give 
them no news; official inquiries remained unanswered. 
So the precinct voted, July 13, 1857, "To instruct the 
committee to write Mr. Livingstone, that as the time having 
expired for which he asked leave of absence, and having 
no intimation from him when he may return, if at all, and 
being destitute of a minister we have decided to invite a 
supply of the pulpit without reference to his return." 

The position was then offered to a Rev. Mr. Wheeler, 
but Dr. Bartlett reported he could not be obtained. 
Others declined. Rev. William L. Parsons, D.D., ac- 
cepted at a salary of $900, and preached for six years. 
He was duly installed, in which service Rev. Mr. Thacher 
and Rev. Asahel Cobb had parts. This church partici- 
pated in the general revival season of 1857 and '58, and on 
May 9, 1858, seventy-seven were admitted to member- 
ship upon confession of faith. In July and September 
following were others, among whom was John Smith, the 
son of Solomon, a free negro, who until his death was 
seldom absent a Sunday from his northeast corner pew, 
and who in his later years, in the absence of a deacon, at 
times officiated at communion. 

Mr. Parsons was the first minister to occupy the par- 



The Church in the Second Precinct 251 

sonage, the land for which was deeded on July 19, 1860 
(for so long as thus used), by Capt. Franklin Cross, to 
the precinct ; the official title of which was changed by the 
Act of March 5, 1860, to "The First Precinct in Mat- 
tapoisett." 

Mr. Parsons continued as pastor until the fall of 1864, 
when on account of his health he left to become the in- 
structor in mental and moral science at Ingraham Uni- 
versity, LeRoy, N. Y., where he died December 23, 
1877. He preached his farewell sermon at Mattapoisett, 
on September 4, 1864, and at the same time set apart 
to the office of Deacons, Solomon K. Eaton and Noah 
Hammond, both of whom were men of value to the 
community as well as the church. Mr. Eaton as an 
architect and the builder of his own and four or more 
other meeting-houses within the limits of old Rochester 
territory; the first Lieutenant of Company I, 3d Regi- 
ment, M.V.M., in the Civil War; and as organist or choir- 
master for fifteen or twenty years he maintained a standard 
of church music seldom attained in a small com- 
munity. Esquire Hammond had an extensive practice in 
probate court, and as a conveyancer and surveyor. He 
completed the town map begun by the data of Ansel 
Weeks. For an extended period he was the chairman of 
the selectmen, and died in 1893 while serving as repre- 
sentative to the General Court. Mr. Parsons while at 
Mattapoisett published a religious work entitled "Satan's 
Devices." 

The minister who presided at the council which in- 
stalled Mr. Parsons was the Rev. John P. Cleveland, of 
the Appleton Street Church, Lowell. The precinct re- 
quested Mr. Parsons, when he left, to seek the services of 



252 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

this friend of his in their behalf. As a result Dr. Cleve- 
land was acting pastor at Mattapoisett from October, 
1864, to June, 1867. He was a graduate of Bowdoin in 
1821 and studied theology with Rev. C. Upham at Roches- 
ter, N. H. He had been dismissed from Lowell in 1862 
to accept the chaplaincy of the 35th Massachusetts Regi- 
ment, which served at Ship Island and New Orleans. 
His vigorous sermon at Mattapoisett on the occasion of 
the assassination of Lincoln is often referred to by those 
who heard it. 

A speaker at anniversary services of the Lowell church 
said of Dr. Cleveland: "He loved the doctrines and 
often preached them with great point and power. He 
had logic and keen wit. He studied men as well as 
books. An earnest advocate of temperance and a true 
patriot. He was a thoroughly consecrated minister of 
the gospel. His spirit was balmy, buoyant, kind and 
sweet. His face beamed with goodness." He had 
other pastorates at Salem, Detroit, Cincinnati, North- 
ampton, and Providence. He died March 7, 1873, being 
seventy-three years of age. 

In the decade following 1867 there were three short 
pastorates. Rev. Benj. F. Man well was called in May, 
1868, and continued as installed pastor until the spring of 

1870. He was a man of literary attainment and was 
leader in the organization of the local " Philistorian So- 
ciety." Rev. Edward G. Smith was installed in April, 

1871, and dismissed in June, 1875; and Rev. Nathaniel 
Larselle served as acting pastor from May, 1876, to July, 
1878. He came to Mattapoisett from Amesbury, being 
a graduate of Bowdoin and a man who read much, espe- 
cially of unusual literature. He had held prominent pas- 



The Church in the Second Precinct 253 

torates, and by those who recall him he is said to have 
been the ablest and most eloquent preacher among the 
later ministers of this church. 

In the interim following Mr. Larselle the precinct 
voted "to continue to have while we are candidating two 
services, and meeting in the evening, but when we get a 
permanent supply the a.m. service is to be omitted." 
The candidate who became this permanent supply was 
Rev. Augustus H. Fuller, who was ordained at Lynn in 
October, 1878, and came at once to Mattapoisett for his 
first charge. He was a graduate of Brown University 
and Bangor Theological Seminary. He continued with 
this church until May, 1886, and held pastorates in Massa- 
chusetts, at West Medway, Billerica, and Easton, before 
his present service at Ballardvale, Andover. 

Mr. Fuller's successor was a young man of twenty-five 
who had been preaching at Woods Hole. Rev. Frank L. 
Goodspeed was ordained and installed at Mattapoisett, 
June 29, 1887. He continued his studies during his pas- 
torate, taking degrees from Harvard College of A.B. and 
Ph.D., and was also a graduate of Boston University 
School of Theology, and later received an honorary D.D. 
Leaving Mattapoisett in 1890 he held successive pas- 
torates at Hingham and Amherst, and for the last thirteen 
years has been settled over the old First Church of Spring- 
field, one of the largest in the Congregational denomi- 
nation. 

He was followed at Mattapoisett by a more elderly 
man, the Rev. Charles H. Phelps, who had been born 
in 1835 upon the frontier of Pennsylvania, his pater- 
nal ancestor, William Phelps, having participated in the 
emigration led by Thomas Hooker, one of the founders 



254 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

of the town of Windsor and of the Connecticut Colony. 
Before coming to Mattapoisett, Mr. Phelps had been in 
mercantile business, had taught at Tabor Academy, 
Marion ; and had served through the Civil War as private 
and hospital steward, and had preached in Smithfield, 
Pa., Greenwich, Marblehead, and Kelley's Island, in 
Ohio. Mr. Phelps resigned, from ill health, at Matta- 
poisett, in Sepember, 1893, since which time he has lived 
at his childhood home farm at Milan, Pa. 

The two ministers who have completed their service 
at Mattapoisett since 1893 were both natives of London, 
in England, and both had served with their wives in the 
foreign mission field. Rev. Charles A. Ratcliffe came 
to this church from pastorates at Buxton, West Scarboro, 
Baldwin, and Madison in Maine. From 1885 to 1888 he 
had served under Bishop William Taylor in the African 
mission at St. Paul de Loanda. His early education was 
obtained at Bancroft's Hospital, London, and he had 
drilled in soldierly tactics in the broad moat and yard of 
the old Tower of London. He had also taken a course 
of study at the Kortegarn Institute, Bonn, Germany; 
and while at Mattapoisett he continued the study of 
theology, at Boston University. He accepted a call to 
North Attleboro in June, 1896, and has been pastor at 
Norton since April, 1901. 

Mr. Ratcliffe 's successor in Mattapoisett was Rev. 
Robert Humphrey, who came to this country from 
Ontario in 1883, having left England in 1881. He had 
acquired his education in the public and science schools 
in the old country, in part in Canada, and in part at 
Oberlin College. He was graduated in 1886 from 
Oberlin Seminary, and took special post-graduate work 



The Church in the Second Precinct 255 

under Professor Moore at Andover. Besides pastor- 
ates at Rye, N. H., Saugatuck, Mich., and Randolph, 
N. Y., he and Mrs. Humphrey were connected for two 
years with the Madura mission in South India, and for 
three years just prior to their coming to Mattapoisett they 
were in the work of the A.M. A., and founded and taught 
in the High School at Whittier, N. C. Mr. Humphrey 
continued at Mattapoisett for nine years until March, 
1905, and held a short pastorate at Hooksett, N. H., 
before accepting a call to Dighton early in 1907. 

The present minister, Rev. C. Julian Tuthill, began his 
service as acting pastor August 11, 1905. He is a native 
of Belchertown, a graduate of Boston University and 
Andover Theological Seminary; and had previous pas- 
torates at Saylesville, R. I., Sanford, Me., and George- 
town, Mass. Mr. Tuthill is a member of various fraternal 
orders, and recently won a large prize for the preparation 
of the ritual now in use in the A.O.U.W. 

In February, 1891, the meeting-house was struck by 
lightning and damaged to the extent of about $1000. 
by the resulting fire. William L. Hubbard and George 
H. Dexter acted in behalf of the precinct in the adjust- 
ment of this matter, and the structure was renovated 
under the direction of Dr. William E. Sparrow, Nathan 
S. Mendell, Mary F. Dexter, Elizabeth R. Winston, 
and Harriet W. Dexter. The large enclosed pulpit had 
previously been taken out and the principal change then 
made was the building of an arch on the plain north wall, 
and the removal of certain pews at the front and rear. 
The bell brought down from the third meeting-house 
had been replaced prior to 1870. This second bell 
cracked in January, 1880, and the present one, of about 



256 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

fourteen cwt., was secured by Noah Hammond, Joseph 
R. Taber, and Elbridge G. Caswell, committee, at a cost 
of $453. 

Various members of the precinct have in recent years 
left bequests for the general expenses of this parish. 
Among these are, Alice Meigs, Susannah P. Dexter, 
Lemuel LeBaron, William B. Rogers, Nathan H. and 
Mary Barstow, Francis LeB. May hew, and Stephen 
Randall. The deacons of the church chosen since 1864 
have been Arvin Cannon, 1868-85; James Cannon, 
1885-87; William B. Rogers, 1887-94; Elliot R. Snow, 
1894- ; J. Charles F. Atsatt, 1894-1905 ; Thomas L. Ames, 
1904-06; Nathan Smith, 1905- ; Dr. David H. Cannon, 
1906-. This church, January 1, 1907, had seventy-three 
members. Sarah E. C. Hathaway has for some time 
been treasurer, and Elliot R. Snow, Dr. Walter E. 
Blaine, and Dr. Irving Niles Tilden, are the Precinct 
Committee in 1907. 

Not quite ten years after minister LeBaron was in- 
stalled at Mattapoisett, a young man of twenty-six was 
called and settled over the Baptist church in Dartmouth. 
His name was Daniel Hix, and the region about his meef- 
ing-house soon became known as Hixville. His father was 
Elder John Hix, of Rehoboth, and at his house there, 
three quarters of a mile south of Oak Swamp Meeting- 
house, Daniel was born, November 30, 1755. As a boy he 
was a leader in mischief; as a youth a minute-man for 
Lexington alarm; and as a man, Elder Goff, in the " Herald 
of Gospel Liberty," said of him: "Father Hix was one of 
the most popular Baptist ministers in Massachusetts. 
The evidence, aside from the unanimous verdict of his 



The Church in the Second Precinct 257 

contemporaries, exists in the following facts, — first, large 
congregations, including many of his orthodox neighbors, 
everywhere waited on his ministry. Second, he collected 
in a rural and sparsely settled community a church of 
more than five hundred members. Third, his inter- 
position to settle difficulties. And fourth, when seven 
or eight years later he left the Baptists and united with 
the Christians, his whole church accompanied him. He 
had then been submitted to inquisitorial examination and 
pronounced heterodox. This only increased his popu- 
larity." 

His sermons are said to have been long, often two or 
three hours, and although not carefully prepared, so re- 
markable for strength and originality of thought, so prac- 
tical and full of the Holy Spirit, that his hearers never 
tired. Elder George N. Kelton remembered Elder Hix, 
and said : " I was at a conference of ministers at Swansey, 
in September, 1830. The impressive services of the day 
were about to close, a feeling of deep interest pervaded 
the audience, when an aged man, of medium height, com- 
pact muscular build, broad chest and shoulders, short 
neck, bushy iron gray hair, heavy beetle brows and broad 
swarthy features, slowly arose in the pulpit, ejaculating, 
'When the lion roars the weaker beasts tremble, eh? 
The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has roared to-day, and 
there is an awful trembling in the camp.' In the man I 
saw a lion type, and in his words heard Judah's lion in 
princely right and dignity." ! 

Elder Hix especially excelled as an organizer of churches. 

1 A Sketch of Elder Daniel Hix, with a History of the First Chris- 
tian Church in Dartmouth, by S. M. Andrews, New Bedford, 1880. 
Page 22. 



258 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

He was installed at Dartmouth, October 10, 1781, with at 
first no stated salary; he working at his trade and his wife 
at her loom, while various of his parishioners tilled his farm 
or contributed from their crops toward his support. He 
traveled extensively, preaching in all this region and at 
times upon the Cape. Various congregations in Fair- 
haven, Long Plain, Berkeley, and Freetown were gathered 
separately, or as branches of the mother church at Hix- 
ville ; and in addition to these was this church at Rochester, 
which originated from Elder Hix's itinerant preaching. 
In the list of churches of 1795 in Backus's History of the 
Baptists (page 391), Rochester is not mentioned, its mem- 
bership being included in the Dartmouth church which 
was reported with 347 members. 

William T. Faunce, in whose possession are the early 
Baptist records, makes the following statement: "The orig- 
inal Baptist church in Mattapoisett was founded in the 
year 1789. It appears, however, that there was no real 
organization effected at that time. In 1792 there was a 
general revival of religious interest. As the outcome, a 
meeting-house was erected in that year; a statement of 
which is given in this wise: 'A number of inhabitants of 
Mattapoisett and New Bedford joined and built a meet- 
ing-house for public worship, being often visited by Elder 
Hix and other Baptist preachers, meetings being held at 
the meeting-house on Lord's Day.' In 1794, in the latter 
part of the year, there was a revival of religion ; Elders 
Lawrence and Bolles labored with us. On January 18, 
1795, at a meeting held for the purpose, after imploring 
divine blessing and assistance, Elder Hix and some breth- 
ren in the church being present, the persons whose names 
are hereinafter written covenanted together to walk in all 



The Church in the Second Precinct 259 

the ordnances and commands of the Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, as the Gospel teaches; under the pastoral 
care of Elder Daniel Hix, and to be as a branch of his 
church. 

Abner Howard. Jesse Ellis. 

Joseph Leavit. Nathaniel Hammond. 

Joshua Besse. Jedidah Robinson. 

Charles Tinkham. Elizabeth Besse. 

Malaki Ellis. Hulda Howard. 

Ephram Tinkham. Phebe Mireck. 

Daniel Randall. Experience Ellis. 
Jethro Randall. 

At this meeting Nathaniel Hammond was chosen clerk." 
The meeting-house mentioned as built in 1792 is the 
same referred to in the Massachusetts Historical Collec- 
tions in 1815 as being "on the confines of Fairhaven, 
but within this place." It in fact stood on substantially 
the same spot as does the present chapel at Tinkhamtown. 
It had long windows, the usual high pulpit and square 
pews, and continued to be used occasionally until de- 
stroyed by fire, perhaps soon after 1850. 

Extracts from Elder Hix's journal, as published in his 
biography, indicate his activities with his branch church 
in Rochester. He writes: "The first Sabbath in Sep- 
tember (1793) were baptized Nathaniel Hammond and 
Thos. Spooner. In Rochester meeting-house, Jan. 23, 
1795, had a solemn session and baptized Thomas Ellis, 
David Randolph, Jesse Tripp, Eph. Tinkham, and Mariah 
Tripp. Mar. 15, baptized Mary Parlor, Anna Robenson, 
Lydia Dexter, Bathsheba Tripp. A day of rejoicing. 
May 17, baptized Unice Ellis, Lydia Westgate, Waty 
Stephens, and Deliverance Ames. Nov. 15, in Rochester, 
Unice Tinkham. 



260 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

In 1806, July 27, baptized in Rochester, Thos 
Sherman. 1807, Micah Winslow, Hannah Winslow, 
Deborah Shearman. In Rochester, 11th August, at the 
Shore, a precious season, Medad Cannon, Thos. Kinney, 
Mary Studson, Susannah Frasher, Penney Beck and Eliz. 
Dunham were baptized. Aug. 20, Joseph Whitridge. At 
Mattapoisett Harbour, a glorious Day, Aug. 25th, Anna 
Weston, Betsey Briggs, Polly Green, Mary Dexter, Arty 
Besse, Amelia Haskell, Abigail Briggs and Thankful 
Shearman were baptized. This was a time to be remem- 
bered. The next morning at the same place the Glory 
of God was evident, and four others were baptized, Seth 
Ames, Timo. Ellis, Edmund Beck (Buck?) and Mollie 
Ellis. Sept. 9, at Rochester Shore, Thos. Ames, Asa 
Dunham, Ebenezer Fuller, Joseph Hammond, Betsey 
Haskell, Mary Dunham, Joa Hammond, Rocksa Haskell, 
Thankful Higgins, Joa Bowles, Lois Atsel (Atsatt ?) and 
Dolly Snow were baptized. A glorious work in this place, 
the Lord reigns marvelously, saints rejoice and sinners 
mourn. At Rochester Shore, Oct. 6th, the Lord leadeth 
and his people follow, — Nancy Hammond, Seney Ham- 
mond, Prudence Wilbur, Abigail Kinney, Joanna Dexter, 
Holder Gelatte were baptized. Also in Rochester soon 
after, Jos. Edwards, Benj. Perkins, Judah Perkins, Lucy 
Haskell, Polly Haskell, and Abigail Skiff. 

In 1808, May 25, in Rochester, James Blankenship aged 
86, James Blankenship Jr., Chas. Chandler, Rebecca 
Chandler. June 28, — Ellis Mendall, Abigail Whitridge, 
Sarah Jenny. On Rochester Great Neck, 29th, Ruth 
Blankenship and Betsey Allen. Rochester Shore, Aug. 
16th, Abr. Harrison, Danl Shearman, Wm Shearman, 
Luke Dexter, Vira Paine. Sept. 27, in Rochester, Deborah 



The Church in the Second Precinct 261 

Hall & Eliz. Hall. Rochester Shore, Nov. 3, Eliz. Cannon 
and Nancy Paine. 1809, Apr. 18, Philip Atsetts. In 
Rochester, Nov. 2, John Cole, Rebecca C. Cole. 1811, 
baptized in Rochester, Ezekiel Cushman and Wid. Rider. 
July 18th, two persons named Miggs. Aug. 13, Andrew 
Randall, Ebenezer Keene, Jr., Abigail Wilbur and Eliz. 
Wilcox, a good work in this place. In Rochester, June 18, 
1812, Lydia Randall and Susanna Howard. 19th, Richard 
Randall and Keziah Randall. July 10, Caleb and Maria 
Mendell. 

Elder Hix doubtless continued to minister as oppor- 
tunity afforded to this branch of his church as long as 
health permitted. The records of Mattapoisett church 
are missing — presumably lost — from 1823 to 1858. 
We know that Elder Hix was active at the revival time of 
1829, but that after 1833 he preached but little, being 
afflicted with kidney disease. His death occurred March 
22, 1838, at the age of eighty-two years, and he was buried 
near his meeting-house in Hixville. 

In the Mattapoisett town meeting of April, 1883, there 
was a discussion as to the advisability of a change of the 
name of Pearl Street to School Street; the argument being 
that "here the ancient schoolhouse stands," and that no 
pearls ever had been found in that vicinity. Thomas 
Nelson then took the floor and said that if the change be 
made, to be consistent, the name of Baptist Street should 
be changed to Christian Street, for there were no real 
Baptists to be found in that locality. The correctness of 
this statement is shown by the church record of March, 
1807, which reads: "The church at Dartmouth, Elder 
Daniel Hix, pastor, of which this church is a branch, 
agreed to come out from the Baptist denomination into the 



262 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

name and order of the New Testament, taking on them- 
selves the name Christians.' ' And because of this action 
the Hixville church and its branches were dropped out 
of fellowship from the Baptist Conference at East Green- 
wich, R. I., June 19, 1811, although Mattapoisett Church 
has continued to be locally called the "Baptist Church." 
Discipline was required and practised much as in all 
other church organizations of that time. Some member 
left to enter other denominations. February, 1808, the 
church voted, "To withdraw fellowship from Zephaniah 
Shearman and his wife, whose name on the book stands 
Weighty Stevens, for withdrawing from the church and 
joining the Methodists." 

In 1814, William Ellis was clerk, and it may have been 
he who, in 1816, made reference in the records to the pre- 
vailing epidemic. " March, — A church meeting attended 
by Elder Whitin. At this time it is more than common 
sickly with an epidemic fever, perhaps one hundred per- 
sons or more have been sick during the winter, one half of 
whom, perhaps, have died in this town and Fairhaven, 
but no member of this church has died that I know of." 
In April, 1816, "Elder Whiting moved away." 

The growth of "the Shore" even in Elder Hix's time 
seemed to demand a new meeting-house in that locality. 
The matter was discussed October 28, 1820, and November 
3, following, meeting was held at the house of Philip Atsatt, 
with Wilbur Southworth as moderator, when a committee 
was chosen consisting of John Atsatt, Malachi Ellis, and 
Luke Dexter. A month later it was reported that a sub- 
scription for thirty-nine shares had been made, to build 
a structure "42x32 with a projection 3x24, said house to 
be one story high with 14 foot posts, a small gallery in 



The Church in the Second Precinct 

front, a decent pulpit and 39 pews; the floor to arch over- 
head and to be handsomely finished. To stand on the 
lot lately purchased in the village of Mattapoisett of 
Thomas To bey." Which lot is said to have been pro- 
cured from the orthodox deacon by creating in his mind 
the impression that it was likely to be used as a site for a 
blacksmith shop. " Uncle Philip " took three shares and 
the following had shares or fractional interests: John 
Atsatt, James Hammond, William Shaw, Wilber South- 
worth, George Shaw, Ebenezer Barrows, Josiah Holmes, 
Malachi Ellis, James Purrington, James Curtis, Luke 
Dexter, James Luce, Jno. Kinney, Elijah Willis, Samuel 
Purrington, Seth Ames, Andrew Dunham, Joseph Snow, 
Nathaniel Hammond, Thomas Holmes, Elisha Dexter, 
Clement Randall, James Coleman, Lewis Randall, Jr., 
Christopher Hammond, Joshua Bates, Theodore C. Ames, 
Benjamin Hammond, Nathan Briggs, Samuel Bowles, 
John H. Randall. 

Samuel Purrington was the first clerk of the proprietors, 
and later Dennis Boodry was clerk for some years. The 
mason work was given to Jonathan Kinney at $75, Wilber 
Southworth contracting to dig the trench for $6. The 
contract for carpenter work went to James Purrington for 
$1075, he agreeing "to find all material for completing 
even to locks, keys, latches, and hinges." March 7, 1822, 
John Atsatt, Seth Ames, Philip Atsatt, Malachi Ellis, 
and Samuel Snow deeded the lot to the proprietors, 1 
bounding it on the east "nine rods by the ropewalk." 
Such was the origin of the most ancient religious building 
in present use in Mattapoisett. 

The high fence around the lot on the street sides con- 
1 Plymouth Deeds, Book 178, page 93. 



264 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

tinued to stand until after 1890; and the interior includ- 
ing the old high pulpit remained unchanged until William 
T. Faunce began his alterations in 1906; at which time 
the corner projections in front were added. 

The pews below remain as always, some of the short- 
backed square pews in the gallery having, however, lately 
been removed. 

In the end gallery sat the choir, which for years always 
contained a good number of natural singers who performed 
their part of the service, not grudgingly, but with a will 
which on a still summer's night carried the notes of Gospel 
Hymns to the remotest sections of the village. The editor 
of the Enterprise perhaps associated in mind this mu- 
sical activity with the shape of the building, when he 
continued to refer to this meeting-house as " the Bee- 
Hive." 

The pews in the side galleries for a number of gen- 
erations had been the choice of location for the some- 
what irresponsible youth who attended evening meetings. 
The low seats around the little square boxes tended 
to sociability, and even Elder Faunce occasionally had to 
pause and announce "Now we'll take three minutes to 
laugh and everybody finish up." The congregation 
below probably looked less serious when seen verti- 
cally, and if " Uncle Calvin's " cap which he spread over 
his bald head looked all proper below, it certainly read 
" best salt " from above. Once a group of young people 
were standing outside the big gate "finishing up" their 
laugh, when Miss Marchant, coming along, halted 
before them. They paused expectantly. Said she, 
" The spirit of the Lord must have been present to-night 
or the devil wouldn't have been so uneasy;" and off 



The Church in the Second Precinct 265 

she went. But in spite of all, in the later generations 
at least, when Elder Faunce was in charge, the young 
people all liked the Elder and respected much the good 
old man. 

In days long gone, it is said, the older people did not 
always set the best example of conduct to the young. By 
the original subscription this house had been built to " be 
free for any respectable preacher who might come," and 
the exponents of differing doctrines often sought the 
use of the house at the same time. The Universalists 
at their start used it for a short period. Their records of 
March, 1835, show that Seth Mendall, Joseph Meigs, and 
Elijah Willis were appointed "to wait on the other com- 
mittee and see if they can agree for the house a part of 
the time on the best terms they can." Earlier than that, 
very soon after the meeting-house was built, there had 
been a division and the " come-outers " withdrew to wor- 
ship in the building later used as the engine-house, and 
then, for some unexplained reason, dubbed "The Little 
Belt." This building at that time had pillars in front, 
pulpit at the north, and a small gallery. The Millerite 
agitation in the '40s caused another schism, and resulted 
in the organization of the Advent Church. 

In the period from 1823 to 1860 there were various 
preachers in the old house. The records of October 14, 
1823, state that "Bro. Hervey Sullings has the summer 
past attended meetings about half of the time." From 
the recollection of older people it appears that Elder 
Briggs preached for two or three years about 1830. Elder 
Israel Wood from 1832 to 1841, and Dr. Robbins acted 
with him occasionally at funerals. Rev. William Bryant, 
whose adherents were locally known as the " Bryantites, " 



266 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

preached to a part of the congregation about 1838 to 
1840. Rev. Alexander M. Averill came to Mattapoisett 
at the age of nineteen. Dr. Robbins attended his ordina- 
tion February 4, 1841, joined with him in revival services in 
March, 1842; and December 14 of the same year, the diary 
states: "Mr. Averill preached another farewell sermon. 
His people here are much divided about the Second 
Advent." He is reputed to have been a good student 
and an able preacher, and to have gone to Cambridge- 
port. 

Soon after, the stalwart Burnham brothers came to 
town. Edwin preached for the Adventists at the " Little 
Belt," and Hezekiah dwelt in Capt. Isaiah Purrington's 
(now Dennis Mahoney's) chambers, and preached in the 
Baptist meeting-house. April 23, 1844, Dr. Robbins 
"heard a temperance lecture from my neighbor Burn- 
ham," — presumably public. Rev. Mr. Taylor, Rev. Mr. 
Eldredge, and Elder Henry F. Carpenter also preached 
here sometime between 1845 and 1855. About 1857 
Rev. Benjamin S. Bachelor, then a young man of zeal 
and ability, commenced a most acceptable ministry, com- 
ing over from New Bedford each Sabbath. His labors 
were very effectual in upbuilding and uniting the church. 

In 1864, Mr. Bachelor was succeeded by Rev. William 
Faunce, who came hither from the mother church in Hix- 
ville. Mr. Andrews in his history * states : " The Church 
at Hix's Meeting-House April 16, 1857, elected Elder 
William Faunce as successor of Elder Howard Tripp. 
He was a native of Plymouth, and being in the prime of 
life he entered upon his work with a zeal that made suc- 

i Sketch of Elder Daniel Hix, etc., S. M. Andrews, New Bedford, 
1880. Page 169. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 267 

cess sure. Like most of our older preachers, Elder Faunce 
had to struggle with many difficulties in early life, but 
possessing a good voice and natural preaching talent, 
with the blessing of God his labors were crowned with 
success. He preached also at North Westport each Sab- 
bath afternoon and organized the church there in Novem- 
ber, 1857. Many joined there in 1858 and were bap- 
tized at the Narrows in Watuppa Pond. The church 
and society re-elected Elder Faunce pastor in 1864, but 
finding obstacles to his success increasing he resigned 
after a short time, leaving the pulpit to be supplied until 
fall by Elder Frederick P. Snow, who was born in Roches- 
ter in 1812. He learned cabinet-making and upholstery. 
His privileges of early education were limited. He was 
ordained in New Bedford December 28, 1845, and was 
pastor at Hixville one and a half years." 

Rev. William Faunce was born in July, 1813, being a 
descendant of the venerable Elder Thomas Faunce. He 
began preaching while very young at Chilton ville, and also 
was with the Union church at Long Pond, Plymouth, be- 
fore going to Hixville. He lived first in Mattapoisett 
at Pine Islands, and at the John A. LeBaron house; he 
at one time owned the Lot N. Jones (Goddard) place; 
for many years he dwelt in the old house which stood on 
the site of his son William T. Faunce 's house; and his 
descendants are numerous in the town. 

For thirty-four years he continued as the pastor of this 
church; faithful unto death; which occurred in April, 
1898. It might well be said of him, as one wrote of Elder 
Hix, "He preached not by constraint, but willingly; not 
for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind." He especially ex- 
celled in prayer. In his old age, when able, he loved, at 



268 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

intervals, to gather those who remained, to hold service 
in the old meeting-house. After his death the house was 
opened but occasionally, until in 1905, following the revival 
season under Rev. David L. Martin, of Boston, when 
many were baptized at "the Shore," the church was re- 
organized, and Rev. Frank S. Jones of New Bedford has 
served as pastor until July, 1907. 

As already stated, the Advent Christian Church in Matta- 
poisett was formed by a division of those who wor- 
shiped in the old Baptist meeting-house. Services were 
held in the "Little Belt," and for a time in the old "Ves- 
try," now a part of the Mattapoisett House. Elder 
Macomber for a while held meetings near the Herring 
Weir. When Elisha Dexter built his new shop, just south 
of his house, he fitted up the upper floor for services; and 
later when the cabinet shop was brought up from Water 
Street, somewhere about 1870, and converted into the 
Advent Chapel, he provided the lot where it stands. Soon 
thereafter it was decided to complete a church organiza- 
tion; and Theodore Ames, Bruce F. Shaw, Charles H. 
Buck, William E. Bolles, Elisha Dexter, James B. Ran- 
som and Joseph E. Smith, having addressed a petition to 
Noah Hammond, Esq., "to issue a warrant for a meeting 
in our chapel," March 28, 1872, the society was organ- 
ized. Others then interested were John A. Shaw, Russell 
E. Snow, Hiram Hammond, Stephen Merrihew, Nathaniel 
H. Denham, and Humphrey Taber. The only regular 
minister shown by the records was Frederick W. Blackmer, 
of Springfield, who was ordained here April 13, 1882, 
Elder E. A. Stockman preaching the sermon. He re- 
signed July 20, 1884. Meetings have not been regularly 



The Church in the Second Precinct 269 

held by this society for some years and most of the mem- 
bers have joined other churches. 

Some independent meetings have in recent years ex- 
isted in this town. The two Union Chapels now standing 
were erected sometime after 1880; the one on the site of 
the old Aucoot schoolhouse being sustained largely by Mrs. 
Bruce F. Shaw and some of the Marion Congregational 
church. Meetings are still held in the chapel at Tinkham- 
town, and it is one of the regular meeting places for the 
"Neighborhood Convention." Roman Catholic services 
have sometimes, in summer, been held in the town hall. 

Many who have summer homes in Mattapoisett have 
been adherents of the Church of England. These, for 
several seasons, after 1874, held services in the Congre- 
gational meeting-house. Then land was given from 
the lot of Thomas Parsons, on which "St. Philip's 
Church" was erected and was consecrated by Bishop 
Benjamin H. Paddock, July 11, 1884. A clergyman 
comes for the summer, and service is regularly held for 
about three months in each year. 

From 1884 through 1890, Rev. Dr. Andrew Oliver of 
the New York Theological Seminary, was the clergyman 
in charge; Rev. A. W. Seabrease, 1891-92; Rev. Henry 
Cunningham 1893; Rev. Charles Lewis Slatery, 1894-96; 
Rev. Charles Mason, 1896-97; Rev. C. H. W. Stocking, 
1897; Rev. Percy Browne, 1898-1900; Rev. Edward 
Drown, 1900-02; Rev. M.Kellner, 1903; various clergymen 
during 1904; Rev. H. W. Perkins, 1905-06. Rev. W. 
A. Holbrook, Rev. T. D. Martin, and Rev. Jas. L. 
Try on have preached the present year although Rev. 
William H. Falkner, of Louisville, Ky., is in charge for 



270 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

most of the season of 1907. Bishop Lawrence has 
twice visited this church. It is under the care of Ven- 
erable Archdeacon Samuel J. Babcock, of Eastern Mas- 
sachusetts. 

The original trustees were Rev. Andrew Oliver, D.D., 
Dr. Fitch, Edward Oliver, Thomas Parsons, Charles J. 
Whittemore, Henry Warren, Causten Browne, and Dexter 
Tiffany: and the present board consists of Causten 
Browne, Theophilus Parsons, Charles A. King, J. Lewis 
Stackpole, Jr., Charles S.Hamlin, and George O. G. Coale. 

As in the rest of New England at that time, liberal 
doctrines began to have an influence in Rochester in the 
earlier part of the nineteenth century. On the 5th of 
February, 1828, Wilber Southworth, Elijah Willis, Ansel 
Weeks, Thomas Dexter, Newton Southworth, George 
Purrington, James Purrington, Warren Weeks, Alden 
Dexter, and Wyatt Snow addressed a petition to Joseph 
Meigs, Esq., of Rochester, "one of the Justices appointed 
to keep the Peace," that he might by his warrant call a 
meeting of all concerned in the First Universalist Society 
in Rochester, at the house of Elisha Ruggles, Esq., on the 
first day of March at two o'clock. At which time organiza- 
tion was had by the choice of Jesse Martin, moderator; 
Newton Southworth, clerk; Noble E. Bates, treasurer; 
and Seth Mendell, Jesse Martin and John Clark, 2d, " a 
committee to govern the affairs of the society." Incor- 
poration was voted, and the committee instructed "to 
treat with some one of the Universalist ministers and 
request him to come and preach one or more sermons in 
the several quarters of the town;" and Wilber South- 
worth was directed " to prepare the minits of the present 



The Church in the Second Precinct 271 

meeting that they be sent for publication in the Univer- 
salist Magazine and Christian Telescope." 

Dr. Southworth, later in the record, says: "The Rev. 
Mr. Robert Hillam commenced preaching here about the 

first of ,1829. Mr. Pickering, I think, was the 

first person to preach the doctrine of universal salvation 
on Sabbath in this town, I think in June, 1828." The 
annual meeting of March, 1829, was warned to be held 
in "Mr. Young's meeting-house," and in 1831 it occurred 
in "the First Baptist Meeting House." 

In May, 1830, the following names, the record states, 
"were handed to the Clerk of the Second Precinct in 
Rochester" as members of this poll-parish: 

Elijah Willis. Aldin Dexter. 

Wilbur Southworth. James Purrington. 

Noble E. Bates. Edward Shearman. 

John Washburn. Newton Southworth. 

Ansel Wicks. Wiatt Snow. 

Stephen Nye. Albert Daggett. 

Christian Konkeal. Prince Snow Jr. 

Joseph Snow. Wilson Snow. 

Joseph R. Taber. John E. Ross. 

Thomas Dexter. Ebenezer R. Hammond. 

Bezald S. Hammond. Larnet Hall. 

George Purrington. Dennis Snow. 

Ebenezer Coleman. Jesse Martin. 

Warren Wicks. Barnabas Hiller. 

John Clark 2d. William Clark. 

Thomas Bassett Jr. Lewis Russel. 

Seth Mendell. William Ellis. 

Seth Cowing. Seth Burgess. 

And the following soon after subscribed to the "Uniting 
Compact " : 

Jabez Goodspeed Job Jenney. 

Benj'n F. Barstow. John W. Hammond. 



272 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Alpheus Barrows. Ivory Snow 2nd. 

Thomas Shearman. Lothrop Foster. 

Joseph Jenney Junr. Joseph Meigs. 

James Snow 2nd. John H. Randall. 

Jabez Waterman. Albert Bates. 

John C. Cannon. Joseph Hudson. 

Ezra Burbank. Roger W. Hammond. 

Rogers L. Barstow. Oakes R. Howes. 

William T. Boyd. Joshua T. T. Bates. 

Samuel Mendell. Ebenezer Barrows. 

Charles Dexter. Hosea Reed. 

There is no record of any regular minister for these first 
few years. July 10, 1830, it was voted " to choose a com- 
mittee to correspond with the Universalist societies in the 
towns of New Bedford, Fairhaven, and Wareham, in 
order to ascertain what they will do respecting procuring 
a minister to preach jointly in the above named towns and 
in the society in this town." 

March 18, 1835, a request was made to Rev. Theo- 
dore K. Taylor to preach for the year ensuing; and 
Mr. Taylor's service continued until October, 1840. 
Dr. Robbins at first did not fancy Mr. Taylor's tactics. 
May 10, 1835, he said: "At five o'clock the Universalist 
Taylor had a meeting and preached on the same text that 
I have lately, Ezek. xiii. 22. Tuesday morning received 
a note from Dr. Southworth requesting me to attend and 
assist at the meeting. Yesterday I wrote to him and de- 
clined." By December, 1837, however, the two ministers 
were going about together visiting schools; and in 1839 
Mr. Taylor delivered the address, and the Orthodox 
minister spoke to the children, on Fourth of July. Sep- 
tember 27, 1840, Dr. Robbins noted: "Mr. Taylor, our 
Universalist, preached his farewell sermon and is going 
to the Cape." During his pastorate the society had 



The Church in the Second Precinct 273 

increased in numbers and in strength; and a proprietors' 
organization had, in 1836, erected the meeting-house now 
standing, which was dedicated December 21st of that year. 

At that time Rogers L. Barstow was clerk of the society, 
and he was succeeded in 1839 by Woodbridge R. Howes. 
In his record it is written, — " We have had the Rev. H. W. 
Morse to dispense the Word of Everlasting Life since the 
departure of Br. Taylor." August 18, 1841, the committee 
were instructed to engage Rev. Henry C. Vose to preach 
the ensuing year, and for some years thereafter he con- 
tinued to preach at Mattapoisett and at Sippican. Rev. 
Thomas Borden was pastor in October, 1851, and was 
dismissed September 18, 1853, "on account of ill health." 

Apparently there was no regular minister for some years, 
for March 2, 1858, a committee was chosen "to procure 
if possible a suitable Pasture." There was a reorganiza- 
tion in February, 1859, and in March, Rev. Joseph Crehore 
became pastor. He lived with his family in the upper 
portion of the house of James W. Dexter. In 1861 he 
was succeeded by Rev. J. E. Davenport. A new uniting 
compact was adopted May 22, 1876; the Rev. Frank A. 
Bisbee having taken charge of the parish in January previ- 
ous. Dr. Bisbee preached later in Philadelphia and for 
some years has been at Boston as editor of the Univer- 
salist Leader. 

Rev. Charles R. Tenney came to Mattapoisett in May, 
1877, was settled as a regular pastor in September, and 
continued here for about five years. He was born in 
Glover, Vermont, was a graduate of Tufts, and has held 
pastorates at Stoughton, and Grove Hall, Dorchester, 
before his present charge at Auburn, Me. During Mr. 
Tenney's pastorate, in the fall of 1879, an addition was 



274 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

made to the west end of the meeting-house to accommodate 
a large new organ, the gift of George Purrington, Jr. 

In May, 1882, Rev. Edward F. Temple became pastor. 
He had rooms at Charles B. Barstow's and organized a 
very popular boys' club, for the study of natural science, 
known as the " Antelope Guild." After 1885, Rev. Benton 
Smith occupied the pulpit, living meanwhile in the house 
he had purchased from the estate of Arvin Cannon, now 
owned by James T. Jones. He resigned on account of 
ill health, March 29, 1887, and died in Mattapoisett 
October 16, 1896. In November, 1887, Rev. George F. 
Jenks began his pastorate, which continued for three 
years. In 1890 and 1891 various students and preachers 
occupied the pulpit. May 1, 1891, it was voted "to unite 
with the parish at Marion for one year," and this union 
has since continued, except that during 1895-96 Rev. 
William F. Potter, of New Bedford, preached regularly 
in the afternoon at Mattapoisett. 

Rev. John Eills from Tufts served the united parishes 
from 1896 to 1898, when he went to Foxboro and Mans- 
field. Rev. Edward F. Temple, who, since his pastorate 
in 1885, had been in the ministry at Oneonta, N. Y., 
and at Trenton, N. J., again preached to these societies 
for a few months before his death, which occurred in 
Marion, January 30, 1899. In March following, Rev. 
Henry B. Taylor began his service, which continued until 
he accepted a call to St. Paul, Minn., in November, 1901. 
His successor, Rev. William G. Schoppe, was a native of 
Maine, and as a Congregationalist minister had preached 
at Helena, Mont., and Ashland, O. This was his first 
Universalist charge. He resigned September, 1904, and 
until June, 1907, was at Webster, Mass. 



The Church in the Second Precinct 275 

During Dr. Schoppe's pastorate Mrs. Ebenezer Jones 
purchased the west-district school-building, moved it to 
the meeting-house lot, and gave it to the Ladies' Society 
as a church home for this parish, to be known as the 
Goodspeed Memorial in memory of her parents Jabez 
and Melintha Goodspeed. Rev. J. Frank Rhodes, who 
had preached at Fairfield, Me., in Chicago, and else- 
where, was pastor, 1904-06, when after a remarkable 
record of thirty or forty years of continuous service in 
the pulpit he died at Norwell, July 29, 1907. Rev. 
James W. Peardon, a graduate of Tufts in 1901, now oc- 
cupies the parsonage in Marion, having begun his service 
to these parishes in 1907. 

James D. Forbes and William Loring Taber were at 
different times deacon of this church at Mattapoisett, and 
Isaiah P. Atsatt and Charles H. Nye at present hold that 
office. Ellis Mendell is clerk of the parish and Walter C. 
Dexter of the church. 

The Friends began to hold meetings in Rochester about 
the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the records 
of the Dartmouth Monthly Meeting l there is a reference, 
September 17, 1705, to " Rochester or Sippican Meeting, " 
which on July 18, 1709, signified a desire to meet weekly, 
and to have the meeting then kept at John Somers' there- 
after at John Wings. By 1712 the Rochester Meeting 
desired assistance in the " settlement and security of their 
meeting-house land," and the adjustment of the title 
thereto required action extending over a long period. 

1 The writer is indebted to Dr. Edward T. Tucker, Recorder of 
New Bedford Meeting, and to his indices of the Dartmouth Meeting 
records for aid in securing the data here given. 



276 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

July 15, 1717, the Dartmouth Meeting advised that "the 
land be made over to particular Friends, and named Savery 
Clifton, Stephen Wing, Nicholas Davis, and Thomas 
Hathaway. In February, 1796, Stephen Tripp and 
Ezekiel Braley were appointed to "examine and get 
deed," and have it run to Richard Davis, Stephen Tripp, 
and William Wing. Another committee was appointed in 
1816 in regard to the title of the land, the house, and the 
burial-ground. The meeting-house referred to by a 
writer in the Massachusetts Historical Collections of 1815 
as being "not far from the sea-shore," is the old meeting- 
house at Happy Alley, which by that time was becoming 
out of repair, and was somewhat remote from many who 
there worshiped. 

In January, 1818, meetings having, for a while previ- 
ously, been held "at a school-house in the neighborhood 
where Friends principally reside;" it was decided to make 
only temporary repairs to the meeting-house, to put in a 
stove for that winter; and hold meetings "on First Days 
at the meeting-house, and on Fourth Days at the school- 
house near David Hiller's, or at his house, which had been 
offered." June 23, 1825, it was recommended that a new 
meeting-house be built "near where the meeting is now 
held." Later, it was advised that it "be 32 x 25, with 10 
foot posts, to be built on the land offered, to cost $450." 
April 6, 1826, the Quarterly Meeting granted liberty to 
make sale of the old house, and on June 28, 1827, the com- 
mittee reported the acceptance of the deed for the new lot, 
and the completion of the new meeting-house at Aucoot. 
David Hiller who had been so interested in the 
plans for this new building died before its completion, 
but the committee reported that $100 towards its 



The Church in the Second Precinct 277 

cost had been received from his bequest: $149.25 was 
received from the "old house," and the remainder of 
the cost, which was "rising $470," was raised by sub- 
scription. 

Such was the origin of the neat "Quaker Meeting- 
House" standing on the height of the ridge between 
"Pine Islands" and "Aucoot;" and here, on First Day 
gathered the Hillers and the Co wens, and their neighbors. 
Josiah Holmes became a member of Friends from the 
Baptists, and his son Josiah Holmes, Jr., grew to be 
prominent in the meeting; and even after he became a 
leading minister in New Bedford he used often to drive 
over, sometimes alone and sometimes with Edward Dil- 
lingham, either to sit in silence, or to speak with eloquence 
and power of the joys of the simple faith. On the 26th 
of July, 1904, the little house was filled, and many stood 
without, by the windows, listening to the Friends from 
neighboring meetings who spoke as they were moved, 
of Captain Joshua L. Macomber, who after many years of 
service to this Meeting was to be laid at rest in its 
burial-ground. 

Mattapoisett Meeting has never been large in numbers 
and it has been the custom of New Bedford Friends to 
maintain a committee for its assistance. From 1730 to 
1795 the Rochester Meeting was allied to Sandwich; but 
in all its recent history in Mattapoisett it has been a mem- 
ber of Long Plain Preparative Meeting and so of the New 
Bedford Monthly Meeting. 

Such have been the religious activities of this Massa- 
chusetts town. To one who carries in mind the picture 
of a Quebec village, with its single glistening spire rising 
far above the clustering housetops ; or recalls the thatched 



278 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

cottages grouped around some venerable parish church 
in England; it may have seemed, in following the story 
here presented, that this small town is burdened by its 
heritage from the past, and that the effectiveness of its 
moral forces and of its religious influences is likely to be 
dissipated in the maintenance of these various organiza- 
tions. However that may be, if, as was written of the 
Pilgrims at Plymouth, — 

" They shook the depths of the desert gloom 

With their hymns of lofty cheer; 
Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard, and the sea! 
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 

To the anthem of the free!" 

these records of the inhabitants of the "plantacion of 

Mattapoyst " give ample proof that their descendants 

here 

"Have left unstained what there they found, — 
Freedom to worship God!" 



CHAPTER XI 

Maritime and Other Industries 

/^\NE thing may well be claimed for the people who 
^-^ founded old Rochester, they were industrious — like 
all the settlers of the old colony; hard continuous work 
was the portion of the men and women. In many places 
primeval forests covered the land and concealed the rocky 
soil beneath. The amount of work involved in creating 
the farms of the town may be appreciated if the matter 
of rock clearing alone is considered, which being re- 
moved from the soil were disposed of in building the 
fences for the farms. Hundreds of miles of these walls, 
laid up with infinite toil, existed in the Mattapoisett por- 
tion of Old Rochester, some of them still to be traced in 
places now covered by heavy growth of forest. 

But farming, while it furnished the essential of food, 
could not, in a community where every one farmed, pro- 
cure things needed which were produced elsewhere; the 
settlers must themselves with something besides farming 
crops, for the purposes of exchange. 

Fortunately for them, the settlers of Rochester were 
not all originally farmers, many came from Kent in old 
England, noted for its ship-building. Among the first 
comers to Rochester, most were from Scituate and 
Marshfield, where ship-building had been pursued for thirty 
years, and while they began here as farmers and food 



280 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

raisers, not a few were capable mechanics and skilled in 
other trades. Farming was harder work then than to- 
day, and men who could do other things were anxious 
to do them; then, too, the roads were rough and poor, 
transportation over them was slow and laborious, while 
the sea, which touched the town, offered a quicker and 
easier means of communication with the outside world. 
About the middle of the seventeenth century the colony 
had had constructed somewhere in Buzzard's Bay a vessel 
with which to trade with the Dutch in New York. 

All these conditions made it natural and inevitable that 
the building of vessels should be entered upon in Rochester 
at an early date, and so it proved. Boats were first built 
for freight and passage, small at the start but growing 
larger. 

The early building was on the co-operative plan; the 
vessel, when produced, was the joint property of a number 
of persons who had contributed to the enterprise. Some 
had done the mechanical work of constructing, some had 
furnished timber, some iron work, some sails and rigging, 
and other money; the work would be going on in the 
winter when the farmer-mechanic could best spare the 
time. 

The late Wilson Barstow, who lived to be over ninety 
and died in 1891, said in a communication to the press 
about thirty years ago, that "vessels were built here as 
early as 1740 or 1750, sloops and small schooners. 
There was no science, they were built by sight of the eye 
and good judgment;" that is, there was no preliminary 
drafting. The keel would be laid and the stem and stern 
affixed, then the midship frame or rib set up and fas- 
tened to the keel, and a few more ribs between the mid- 



Maritime and Other Industries 281 

ship frame and the ends of the vessel; after that, ribbands 
or thin strips of boards would be run from the bow to the 
stern at various heights from the keel outside of the few 
frames so set up, and the remaining frames made to fit the 
lines so produced by the ribbands. There were no models. 

Queer results were sometimes produced by this method. 
" Mr. Hastings," says Wilson Barstow, " was put in a tower- 
ing passion by being told that his starboard bow was all on 
one side, and one sloop was nicknamed Bowline because 
she was so crooked." The old whaler Trident, of 448 tons, 
built in 1828, was so much out of true that she carried 
one hundred and fifty barrels more oil on one side of the 
keel than the other. The sailors said she was "logy on 
one tack, but sailed like the mischief on the other." 

In the early days of building, the sloop or schooner con- 
structed during the winter would be sold to Nantucket 
or New Bedford (then Dartmouth), and the money divided 
among those entitled; this contributed substantially to 
the prosperity of the whole town. Not all the vessels 
so built were sold away; by the use of the same co-opera- 
tive plan they were sailed for joint account. A sloop called 
the Planter was built and so run as a freighter from Roches- 
ter, before the Revolution. And at the same early date, 
Rochester also had whaling vessels of the small type then 
used. The sloop Defiance, which departed on a voyage 
in 1771, was one such Rochester vessel. Without 
doubt there were a number of others, but the difficulty of 
tracing them arises from the fact that Rochester was not 
then a port: by which is meant a place from which mer- 
chandise could lawfully leave or enter the country, where 
records of vessels sailing and arriving would be kept, and 
proper papers to evidence the nationality and regu- 



282 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

larity of the vessel's business supplied, to be carried on 
the voyage, to protect the vessel as a regular British craft. 
New Bedford (then Dartmouth) was not a port, and 
Rochester and Dartmouth vessels, therefore, had to 
clear from Nantucket, or Newport, which were ports. 
Whaling vessels generally cleared from Nantucket because 
that was on the way to the whaling grounds at the Straits 
of Belle Isle, around Newfoundland and on the Grand 
Banks. 

Many of these Rochester whaling sloops could, perhaps, 
be traced in the Nantucket records from the names of 
their captains, and also of their agents, by one familiar 
with Rochester names. 

As evidence that whalers were built for Nantucket 
before the Revolution, there is the record of the sailing 
from Nantucket, June, 1774, of the sloop Rochester owned 
by Nathaniel Macy of Nantucket. Her name suf- 
ficiently shows her origin. The Rochester on this voyage 
met with misfortune; she struck Great Point Rip and 
was lost. This calls attention to the fact that the mor- 
tality of these small whaling sloops was great. From gales, 
uncharted bays, lack of lighthouses and buoys, and the 
activity of French and Spanish privateers, fully twenty 
per cent of their number were lost yearly — but the busi- 
ness was still profitable, and so, in a way, the losses 
were the ship-builders' pecuniary gain. 

Gideon Barstow, Sr., born in 1738, died 1826, came here 
about 1765 from Hanover, where he had been building 
ships. He was the great grandson of William, who came 
to Hanover, 1649, and was practically the first to build 
ships in the old colony. The coming of Gideon Barstow 
to Mattapoisett gave a new start to the industry and 




£ ft 



ft * 



Maritime and Other Industries 283 

ships of the largest size began to be launched from his 
yard. 

Abner Pease was an old builder, but of a smaller class 
of vessels. His yard was in the extreme eastern portion of 
the town, just north of Pease's Point, in Aucoot. 

Ebenezer Cannon, born about 1750, the great-grand- 
father of Dr. David H. Cannon, was another old 
builder. His yard was at Cannonville, so named from 
him. 

Washington Gifford, another of the old builders, built 
on the Mattapoisett River. These four were all building 
before 1800. 

Ship-building continued as an industry in Mattapoisett 
for nearly a century and a half, the last vessel to be built 
leaving the ways in 1878. It has been estimated that be- 
tween four hundred and five hundred vessels, in all, were 
built during this century and a half. This amounted to 
more than one hundred thousand tons, and of a value, at 
the quite regular rate that prevailed of forty dollars per ton. 
Whether expressed in United States money or in 
Massachusetts pounds, shillings, and pence this would 
amount to $4,000,000. 

There were eight yards located in the Mattapoisett 
section of Rochester — possibly nine, viz. : 

1. On the east bank of the Mattapoisett River, just 

south of the herring weir. 

2. At Pease's Point, in Aucoot Cove, at the extreme 

east section of the present town of Mattapoisett. 

3. Barstow's yard, at the bend of Main and Water 

streets, opposite the summer home of Miss Martha 
H. Munro. 



284 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

4. Holmes's yard, just east of Long Wharf, at the 

south of the post-office. 

5. The Hammond yard, south of the old County House, 

opposite the residence of Thomas Luce. 

6. A yard opposite the east end of the Mattapoisett 

House, south of Water Street. 

7. The Meigs yard, south of Mrs. Sophia Means 's 

house. 

8. The Cannonville yard of Benjamin Barstow, located 

west of Miss Mary W. Barnard's summer residence; 
this, as a separate yard, had a brief existence. 

9. The Cannonville yard of Ebenezer Cannon, north 

of Ship street; which Benjamin Barstow later 
acquired. 

Vessels were built in strange places. Libni Rogers 
built a sloop in the yard of the premises where Edgar 
Silva now lives, and she was launched into the creek at 
Goodspeed's Island. Prince Ames built a schooner at 
the house north of and adjoining the Cushing Cemetery; 
she was taken to the shore and launched from Rogers L. 
Barstow's wharf; and afterwards went up into the Great 
Lakes. A few vessels were built at a yard near the present 
residence of Charles A. King, and a ferry-boat to run 
between New Bedford and Fairhaven was built near Mrs. 
Stackpole's house. 

Mr. Leon M. Huggins, in the New Bedford Standard 
of January 9, 1904, contributed a very valuable and in- 
teresting sketch of Mattapoisett ship-building, from which 
many facts have been obtained in writing this chapter. 

The Mattapoisett River yard, as already seen, was 
early in operation. It is quite possible a number of 



Maritime and Other Industries 285 

separate yards may have existed up and down the river, 
at which small vessels, wood-barges, sloops, and little 
schooners were built; for instance, there was the sloop 
Rochester, engaged in whaling in 1774, and the sloop 
Defiance, which sailed from there in 1771. These have 
already been alluded to and were doubtless built on the 
river, but the Revolution and the British guardships put 
a stop to such enterprises. 

The first record we now have of a vessel built on the 
river was the brig Nile, built in 1800 by Washington 
Gifford. The last vessel built on the river was the brig 
Brutus, of 200 tons; she required six weeks of continuous 
labor to float her down the river, and doubtless satisfied 
her builders that the river yard was no longer practicable. 

It seems quite probable that Gideon Barstow's 
ship-yard was located where his son and grandson after- 
ward carried on ship-building, which, as we have said, 
was opposite Miss Munro's summer residence. From 
this yard the greatest number of Mattapoisett vessels 
were launched; more than 150 in all, it is said, and here 
the George Lee, 650 tons, the largest Mattapoisett vessel, 
was built. Two launching-ways were located on it, and 
building carried on there for nearly one hundred years. 
It is to be regretted no record now exists of the total num- 
ber. As many as four ships a year are known to have 
been constructed there; this was the case in 1832, and in 
the years 1838, 1841, and 1852 three ships were launched 
from this yard. They were mainly of large tonnage. 

Abner Pease, an old ship-builder at whose yard many 
of the Mattapoisett mechanics learned their trade, built, 
as we have seen, in Aucoot Cove. No record of his vessels 
exists. They were mainly small crafts, schooners, and 



286 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

sloops. He must have been building at the time of the 
Revolution: afterwards he moved to Fairhaven. 

Benjamin Barstow, a relative of Gideon Barstow, had 
his yard at Cannonville, first, as we have seen, west of what 
is at present Miss Barnard's house, which then was Mr. 
Barstow's; afterwards he came to occupy the Ebenezer 
Cannon yard, just north of Ship Street. 

Ebenezer Cannon, his sons and grandsons, were noted 
ship-builders, and many of the finest vessels were due to 
their skill. His grandsons, James and Arvin Cannon, 
ran the Cannonville yard for some years. Arvin was at 
one time master builder in Meigs & Pratt's yard. Watson 
Cannon, another grandson of Ebenezer, held the same 
position in Wilson Barstow's yard. No traces of the 
vessels built by Ebenezer Cannon exist, but they were 
numerous. 

Benjamin Barstow in 1832 built the first live-oak ship 
in town, the William C. Nye, 389 tons. He relinquished 
his yard in his latter days to his two sons, Nathan H. and 
Henry. This yard was the first of the prominent yards to 
go out of business. 

Loring Meigs and David Pratt, his brother-in-law, had 
a yard on what are now the premises of Mrs. Sophia 
Means, at the foot of Mechanic Street; Arvin Cannon, 
as already stated, being at one time the master builder. 
The last vessel built in that yard was launched about 
1860. 

There was also a yard in front of the easterly end of the 
Mattapoisett House. This was carried on by the Can- 
nons for a number of years. 

Farther to the west, and just beyond Thomas Luce's 
barn, Leonard Hammond had a yard. The last ship 







H = 
r - 



g 7 
o J 



Maritime and Other Industries 287 

built from this yard was the Clara Bell, in 1852, by 
George Crandall, of Newport. 

Adjoining Hammond's yard on the west came the 
Holmes ship-yard, established about 1800 by Josiah Holmes, 
Sr. This was next in importance to the Gideon Barstow 
yard. Mr. Holmes, Sr., learned his trade of Abner Pease. 
He carried on ship-building alone for about forty years; 
then with his son Josiah, and afterwards, about 1846, he 
relinquished the business to his two sons, Josiah and Jona- 
than H. Holmes (the latter the father of the late Reuben 
F. Holmes, and of Judge Lemuel LeB. Holmes). The 
sons carried on the business as the firm of Josiah Holmes, 
Jr., and Brother, until 1868; the Civil War interrupting 
for some six years, during which there was no building. 

After 1868 Jonathan H. Holmes built a schooner 
and two whale-ships. The last Mattapoisett vessel, the 
Wanderer, was built at this yard in 1878. Thus closed 
the story of one of the most famous ship-building ports of 
the country. 

In the busiest period two hundred and seventy-five 
workmen came up from the yards and workshops, when 
the six o'clock bell rang at the foot of Mechanic Street; 
the little bell which afterward summoned the scholars 
from the East District schoolhouse. 

The panic of 1857, which ruined the business men of the 
village, the Civil War which disarranged everything, and 
finally, and most potent of all, the discovery of petroleum 
in Pennsylvania, sounded the knell of the whale fishery, 
and left the little village stranded and without an industry. 

But a splendid business this building of ships had been ! 
Each yard striving to produce the best ship, and under 
this competition turning out the finest vessels of their class 



288 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

to be found in the world. The workmen were skilled 
and intelligent; their work was continuous. The young 
men were not obliged to seek employment elsewhere, 
home offered better than most localities. Under these 
conditions the village enjoyed, for a century, a con- 
tinually increasing prosperity. Its social condition was 
the typical and almost ideal one that existed so generally 
in this Commonwealth up to half a century ago and then 
began to disappear. There were no large fortunes and 
consequently no caste to cause envy and disquiet. There 
was social equality and a sturdiness of character which 
such conditions produce. It was fitting that the prominent 
device on the seal of Mattapoisett should be a vessel on 
the stocks. 

So far as possible with the aid of Mr. Huggins's 
article in the Standard and Starbuck's "American Whale 
Fishery," we have made up the following list of vessels 
built in Mattapoisett, and their builders. It comprises some 
138 vessels. A study of this list satisfies one that prob- 
ably not a third of the vessels have been obtained. Matta- 
poisett built whalers for Nantucket, New Bedford, for 
towns in Bristol County, Rhode Island and Connecti- 
cut; she built coasters, merchantmen, steamers, and a 
variety of craft. The list, therefore, must only be re- 
garded as a partial one. It shows the date of building, 
name of vessel, rig, tonnage, and in many cases the builder, 
written in this order: 

1800. Nile, brig, Washington Gifford. 

1802. John Jay, ship. 

1811. President, ship, 293 tons. 

1812. John Adams, ship, 296 tons. 
1819. Alexander Barclay, ship, 301 tons. 



Maritime and Other Industries 289 

1820. Ontario, ship, 354 tons; Cicero, ship, 252 tons, 
B. Barstow & Josiah Holmes, Sr. 

1821. Phenix, ship, 323 tons; Spartan, ship, 333 tons. 
1823. Rose, ship, 350 tons; Congress, ship, 239 tons. 

1826. Omega, brig, 363 tons; Frances, ship, 347 tons. 
G. Barstow & Son; Swift, brig, 456 tons. 

1827. Aurora, ship, 340 tons, W. Barstow; Zone, 
schooner, 365 tons. 

1828. Meridian, ship, 381 tons. 

1829. Rambler, ship, 318 tons: Richard Mitchell, ship, 
386 tons, W. Barstow. 

1830. Mary Anne, ship, 240 tons, W. Barstow; Clark- 
son, ship, 380 tons, W. Barstow. 

1831. Mary Mitchell, ship, 369 tons. 

1832. Catharine, ship, 384 tons, W. Barstow; Mt. 
Vernon, ship, 384 tons, Holmes; Hobomok, ship, 412 tons; 
Wm. C. Nye, ship, 389 tons, B. Barstow & Co.; Mariner, 
ship, 349 tons, W. Barstow; Young Eagle, ship, 377 tons, 
W. Barstow; Gideon Barstoiv, ship, 379 tons, W. Barstow. 

1833. Levi Starbuck, ship, 376 tons, Holmes; Ohio, 
ship, 381 tons; Champion, ship, 390 tons, W. Barstow. 

1834. Alfa, ship, 345 tons, Cannon ; Christopher 
Mitchell, ship, 387 tons, Holmes; Elizabeth Mitchell, 
ship, 381 tons, Holmes. 

1835. Gold Hunter, brig, 202 tons; Splendid, ship, 
392 tons; Nile, ship, 321 tons, B. Barstow. 

1836. Catawba, ship, 335 tons, Cannon; Sarah, ship, 
370 tons, Meigs; Caduceus, brig, 109 tons, W. Barstow; 
Henry, ship, 346 tons, Holmes; Annawan, brig, 148 tons, 
Holmes; Young Ph&nix, ship, 377 tons, Holmes; Sarah, 
brig, 171 tons, Meigs. 

1837. Sarah, bark, 179 tons; LeBaron, brig, 170 tons, 



290 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

W. Barstow; LaGrange, bark, 170 tons, W. Barstow; 
James Loper, ship, 348 tons, Holmes. 

1838. Napoleon, ship, 360 tons, W. Barstow; Daniel 
Webster, ship, 336 tons, W. Barstow; Solon, brig, 129 tons, 
Holmes; Young Hero, ship, 339 tons, W. Barstow; Willis, 
bark, 164 tons, E. Cannon. 

1839. Henry Clay, ship, 385 tons, Holmes; Richard 
Henry, bark, 173 tons, W. Barstow; Chase, brig, 153 tons, 
W. Barstow; Volant, bark, 210 tons, Holmes. 

1841. Edward Cary, ship, 353 tons, W. Barstow; 
Harrison, ship, 371 tons, W. Barstow; Elizabeth Star- 
buck, ship, 388 tons, Holmes; Montecello, ship, 358 tons, 
W. Barstow; Elizabeth, bark, 219 tons; Potomac, ship, 356 
tons, Holmes; Massachusetts, ship, 360 tons, Holmes; 
Narragansett, ship, 398 tons, Holmes; Annawan, brig, 
159 tons, B. Barstow. 

1842. Callao, ship, 324 tons, Meigs; James, ship, 321 
tons, Holmes; Joseph Meigs, ship, 338 tons, Meigs. 

1843. Empire, ship, 403 tons, Holmes. 

1844. Niger, ship, 437 tons, Holmes; Isaac Walton, 
ship, 440 tons, W. Barstow; Union, bark, 124 tons, Holmes. 

1845. Cachelot, ship, 230 tons, W. Barstow. 

1846. Dunbarton, bark, 199 tons, W. Barstow. 

1847. Cleone, ship, 373 tons, B. Barstow; Platina, 
bark, 266 tons; Osceola II, bark, 197 tons, Holmes. 

1848. Nauticon, ship, 372 tons, Holmes. 

1849. Mattapoisett, brig, 150 tons, Meigs; President, 
bark, 180 tons. 

1850. Ontario, ship, 368 tons, Holmes; Arctic, ship, 
431 tons, W. Barstow. 

1851. Elisha Dunbar, bark, 257 tons, Holmes; Europa, 
ship, 380 tons, W. Barstow; Northern Light, ship, 513 tons, 



Maritime and Other Industries 291 

W. Barstow; Sea Queen, bark, 195 tons, Holmes; Sea Fox, 
bark, 166 tons; R. L. Barstow, bark, 208 tons, Hammond; 
Alice Mandell, ship, 425 tons, Holmes. 

1852. Daniel Wood, ship, 345 tons, Holmes; Gay 
Head, ship, 389 tons, W. Barstow; John A. Parker, bark, 
342 tons, W. Barstow; Polar Star, ship, 475 tons, Holmes; 
Clara Belle, bark, 295 tons, Hammond; Vigilant, bark, 
282 tons, Holmes; Daniel Flanders; Gazelle, ship, W. Bar- 
stow; Wm. Upham; James Arnold, ship, 393 tons, 
B. Barstow*. 

1853. Lapwing, ship, 432 tons; Petrel, ship, 350 tons, 
Holmes; Reindeer, ship, 450 tons, Holmes; Siren Queen, 
ship, 461 tons, Meigs. 

1854. Matthew Luce, bark, 410 tons, Holmes; Onward, 
ship, 461 tons, Holmes. 

1855. Plover, ship, 330 tons, Holmes. 

1856. Contest, ship, 441 tons, W. Barstow; Eliza, 
bark, 360 tons, Meigs; Huntress, bark, 383 tons, Holmes; 
Merlin, bark, 348 tons, Holmes; Brewster, ship, 225 tons, 
Holmes ; Sunbeam, bark, 360 tons, Holmes ; Thomas Pope, 
ship, 327 tons, W. Barstow; South Seaman, ship, 497 tons, 
Meigs; Sea Ranger, bark, 370 tons, Holmes. 

1858. Two Brothers, bark, 288 tons, N. H. & H. 
Barstow. 

1859. Ocean Rover, of Nantucket, ship, 314 tons, 
Holmes. 

1860. Ocean Rover, of Mattapoisett, bark, 417 tons, 
Holmes. 

1865. Active, tugboat, Holmes. 

1867. Alaska, bark, 346 tons, Holmes. 

1868. Concordia, bark, Holmes. 

1869. Laura Robinson, schooner, Holmes. 



292 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

1877. Gay Head, bark, Holmes. 

1878. Wanderer, bark, Holmes. 

Other vessels known to have been built in Mattapoisett, 
but in what year is not known, are: 

George C. Gibbs, W. Barstow; Brutus, brig, 200 tons, 
built on Herring River; George Lee, ship, 650 tons, W. 
Barstow; Watkins, bark, W. Barstow; Lamartine, schooner, 
W. Barstow; Ormus, brig, B. Barstow; Sarah, schooner, 
B. Barstow; Laura Jane, schooner, Holmes; John Milton, 
ship, W. Barstow; Lydia, ship, Meigs; Eliza, schooner, 
N. H. Barstow; Elizabeth, bark, 219 tons, Cannon; Polly 
Hall, Cannon; Almira. 

Mattapoisett built whalers for other ports, but she also 
built for herself and carried on a considerable whaling 
business for nearly a century. As early as 1771 we find 
that the sloop Defiance, hailing from Rochester, sailed on a 
whaling voyage, and between that date and 1865, when the 
Willis, the last whaler, was sold, some fifty different ves- 
sels sailed from the port. It does not seem to have been a 
prosperous business for the village, nor for Marion, which 
had about half as many whalers. The voyages were gen- 
erally short, and three hundred or four hundred barrels 
were thought to be good catches. Perhaps they were out- 
fitted too well; the supplies may have cost more because 
they were to be eaten by the men and boys of the village, 
of whom the crews were largely composed, and who would 
have to be faced by the owners when the voyage was 
ended. The voyages were alluded to by the New Bed- 
ford and Nantucket people as "Plum Pudding Voyages;" 
whether this was because of their lavish food supplies or 
for some other reason is uncertain. 

The list of these whaling vessels is likewise imperfect. 



Maritime and Other Industries 293 

The year when each vessel first appears is given, together 
with her name and who were first her agents, the agents 
afterwards changed in most instances. 

1771. Sloop Defiance. 

1816. Sally, a schooner. 

1820. Orion, a brig. 

1822. Pocohontas, a brig. 

1826. Magnolia, schooner, 90 tons. 

1827. Sophronia, schooner. 

1830. Franklin, bark, 250 tons, G. Barstow & Son, 
Agents; Lexington, schooner. 

1831. Dryade, bark, 263 tons, G. Barstow & Son, 
Agents; Laurel, schooner, G. Barstow & Son, Agents. 

1832. Gideon Barstow, ship, 379 tons, G. Barstow & 
Son, Agents. 

1833. Shylock, ship, 277 tons. 

1836. Annawan, brig, 148 tons, G. Barstow & Son, 
Agents; Caduceus, brig, 109 tons, Joseph Meigs, Agent; 
Mattapoisett, brig, 150 tons, G. Barstow & Son, Agents; 
Sarah, brig, 171 tons, G. Barstow & Son, Agents; Orion, 
brig, 99 tons, Elijah Willis, Agent. 

1837. Lagrange, brig, 170 tons, Elijah Willis, Agent; 
LeBaron, brig, 170 tons, G. Barstow & Son, Agents. 

1839. Chase, brig, 153 tons, G. Barstow & Son, 
Agents; Richard Henry, bark, 173 tons, G. Barstow & 
Son, Agents; Willis, brig, 164 tons, R. L. Barstow, Agent. 

1841. Edward, brig, 133 tons, Wilson Barstow, Agent; 
Elizabeth, bark, 219 tons, R. L. Barstow, Agent. 

1842. Joseph Meigs, ship, 338 tons, Joseph Meigs, 
Agent. 

1845. Cachelot, ship, 230 tons, Wilson Barstow, 

Agent. 



294 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

1846. Dunbarton, bark, 169 tons, Wilson Barstow, 
Agent. Sarah, ship, 370 tons, Joseph Meigs, Agent. 

1847. Helen, brig, 120 tons, R. L. Barstow, Agent. 

1850. Samuel & Thomas, bark, 191 tons, R. L. 
Barstow, Agent; America, brig, 148 tons, R. L. Barstow, 
Agent. 

1851. R. L. Barstow, bark, 208 tons, R. L. Barstow, 
Agent; Massasoit, bark, 206 tons, Caleb King, Jr., Agent; 
Oscar, bark, 369 tons, S. K. Eaton, Agent; Sun, bark, 
183 tons, R. L. Barstow, Agent. 

1852. Clara Bell, bark, 295 tons, R. L. Barstow, 
Agent; Excellent, brig, 70 tons, John T. Atsatt, Agent. 

1853. March, brig, 89 tons, R. L. Barstow, Agent. 

1856. Amelia, brig, 127 tons, L. Meigs & Co., Agents; 
Elvira, brig, 131 tons, L. Meigs & Co., Agents; Palmyra, 
schooner, 100 tons, L. Meigs & Co., Agents. 

1857. Brewster, ship, 225 tons, J. Holmes, Jr. & 
Bro., Agents; Union, bark, 124 tons, R. L. Barstow, 
Agent. 

1859. Ocean Rover, ship, 314 tons, J. Holmes, Jr. & 
Bro., Agents. 

Agents of Whaling Vessels. 

Gideon Barstow, probably before 1800, and down to 1830; 
Gideon Barstow & Son (Wilson Barstow), 1830-1844; 
Wilson Barstow, 1841-1850; Elijah Willis, 1836-1847; 
Rogers L. Barstow, 1839-1860; Seth Freeman, 1841- 
1854; Leonard Hammond, 1841-1844; Samuel Sturtevant, 
Jr., 1847-1849; Loring Meigs, 1851-1860; John T. Atsatt, 
1852-1854; Atsatt & Sturtevant, 1854-1858; Josiah 
Holmes, Jr., 1854- ; Josiah Holmes, Jr. & Brother, 1854- 
1862; Solomon K. Eaton, 1851-1854; Caleb King, Jr., 




Bark Sunbeam 
Built in Mattapoisett in 1856 



Maritime and Other Industries 295 

1852-1854; N. H. Barstow, 1861-1863; J. R. & W. L. 
Taber, 1861-1864. 

But if the owners of Mattapoisett whalers did not prosper, 
the master, officers, and crew did; many acquired a com- 
petency in the business, and Mattapoisett whalemen were 
quite famous. To Archelus Hammond, born 1759, died 
1830, a noted whaleman, belongs the credit of striking 
the first whale ever struck in the Pacific, and of intro- 
ducing whaling into that ocean. 1 Mattapoisett whaling 
masters were recognized as good business managers of 
voyages, as navigators, and skilful whalemen. 

An excellent account of the life on one of these ves- 
sels has been written in "On Board a Whaler," by 
Thomas West Hammond, M.D., a native of Matta- 
poisett, now a member of the bar in Tacoma, Wash- 
ington. 

The following extracts show what Dr. Robbins noted 
in his diary in regard to shipping while he was in 
Mattapoisett : 

1831 
Oct. 22. A large fine ship was launched here this morning. 360 ton. 
It did not go off well. 

1832 
June 28. Toward evening two fine ships were launched here, and a 

third was attempted and failed. 
June 29. At evening the other large ship was launched. 
Aug. 11. Went on board the new ship Gideon Barstow, which is to 

sail soon. 
Sept. 23. A ship was launched here in the evening, unnecessarily 

I think, and a good deal of work done during the day. 
Oct. 15. Looked at a fine new ship of live-oak, built in four months. 
Oct. 22. The schooner Laurel, anxiously expected came in with 230 

barrels of sperm oil. 

1 Ship-building on North River, Briggs, page 167. 



296 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Oct. 24. In the morning attended the launch of a fine live-oak ship, 
over 400 tons. It did not go clear. 

1833 
Feb. 11. We have a painful account that the captain and a boat's 

crew of a whaleship belong here is lost. 
Mar. 26. Two promising young men of this place have been lost at sea 

from a whaleship. Visited one of the families. 
May 2. Looked at a new ship, which was well launched toward 

evening. 
May 23. Attended the launching of the finest ship, probably, that ever 

was built here. It did not float actively. 
June 18. Another ship was launched here successfully. All whalers. 
Nov. 13. A schooner belonging here came in from whaling, having 

made a very profitable voyage. 

1834 
May 20. Saw the launch of a fine ship — the first from Mr. Cannon's 

new yard. It went very well. 
May 21. Saw another ship launched in fine state from Mr. Cannon's 

yard. 
June 30. Rode to Bedford and procured some tracts to give to the ship 

Dryad. 

1835 

Sept. 22. Attended the launching of a good ship. 

Sept. 25. Yesterday saw a fine ship launched here. 

Oct. 23. A ship launched in the morning. 

Dec. 9. The ship G. Barstow, mostly owned here, came into the 
harbor, after a voyage to the Pacific of more than three 
years, with a moderate cargo of 2100 bbls. They had 
hoped for 3000. The first Cape Horn ship loaded that 
has entered this harbor. 

1836 
Apr. 4. A new brig owned here was launched Saturday evening. 
May 30. Attended the launching of a ship. 

1837 
Apr. 21. At evening saw the launching of a ship. 
May 22. A good ship was launched here Saturday evening. 
Sept. 24. Afternoon preached the sermon on Ps. XCVII: 1, 2, on the 
loss of the brig Cadmeus (Caduceus?) which sailed from 



Maritime and Other Industries 297 

here Apr. 28, 1836, and was spoken at sea, bound home, 
Nov. 28, and had not been heard of since. Their crew 
were fifteen; eleven from this town. 

1838 
Mar. 26. A fine ship was launched here this morning. 
July 10. A ship was launched here this morning. 

1839 

Apr. 4. News came that the brig Annawan of this place, coming home 
with a valuable cargo, was wrecked near Bermuda, and the 
men are reported missing. Several families are much dis- 
tressed. 

Apr. 15. Painful news received here this morning from the brig Anna- 
wan, wrecked. Of 21 of the crew, 14, including the cap- 
tain and mates, are lost; 7 are saved, 7 from this place; 
4 lost. The cargo worth about $20,000. 

Apr. 26. Saw a seaman Chase, who was wrecked in the Annawan. 
His story is very affecting. Four promising youths of this 
place were lost. 

May 10. A whale brig came in here that has done well. 

May 17. Yesterday a whale brig came in with 600 barrels of sperm oil. 

June 12. Wrote a letter to Capt. Samuel Mitchell of Bangor, who took 
our seamen from the late wreck. 

Aug. 9. A ship from this place with 2000 barrels of oil has been lost 
in the Indian Ocean; men saved. A severe loss. 

Aug. 21. A whale brig sailed from here. 

Aug. 27. A fine ship was launched here this morning. 

Oct. 7. It is supposed we have lost a schooner from this place; a good 
vessel with its crew, on their passage from Philadelphia to 
Boston, in the disastrous storm of Aug. 30. 

Nov. 7. A whale brig came in here last night after a very prosperous 
voyage. 

1840 

July 27. We had a very fine launch of a good ship. 

Sept. 15. A bark whaler sailed from here. Gave bibles and tracts. 

Oct. 2. Whale brig sailed. 

Oct. 12. In the morning a fine new ship went off with fine launch. 

Oct. 13. Whale brig sailed. 

Oct. 23. Whale brig came in from a good voyage. 

1841 
Apr. 6. A whale brig sailed this morning. One went last week. 



298 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Apr. 11. A whale brig sailed yesterday. 

May 31. Five ships and a brig on the stocks. 

June 11. There are six ships and one brig on the stocks in our ship 

yards. 
June 15. Mr. Crosby and his company launched a fine brig. 
June 19. Last evening a fine ship was launched here. Another large 

whale ship was launched this evening. 
July 8. A new whale brig sailed from here this morning. 
Aug. 16. Two fine ships were launched within a few minutes of each 

other. 
Sept. 16. Two fine ships were launched here this morning. 
Dec. 22. A whale brig sailed from here this morning. 

1842 

Apr. 17. A whale brig came in this morning with a good cargo, but oil 
is very low and has a dull sale. 

Aug. 6. Saw the launch of a ship. 

Aug. 13. A barque ship sailed from here for whaling. 

Sept. 6. Two good ships were launched here this morning near to- 
gether. A whale brig came in. 

Oct. 8. The fine new ship Jos. Meigs sailed from here this morning. 

Oct. 12. A whale brig came in. 

Nov. 25. A whale brig came in. 

1843 
Apr. 28. Two whale brigs sailed from here this morning. 
June 10. A ship of 400 tons was launched here. 
Oct. 19. A whale brig sailed from here. 

1844 
Apr. 4. A whale brig came in. 
May 30. A whale brig came in. 
May 31. Two large ships were launched at our yards within a few 

minutes of each other. 
June 17. A whale brig sailed from here. 
Aug. 24. A fine five oak ship was launched here yesterday, built it 

twelve weeks. 
Sept. 3. A whale brig, gone three months and twenty-three days, came 

in with 450 barrels, sperm oil. A great voyage. 

Early in the nineteenth century, salt-making became an 
important industry in the shore villages of Rochester. 






Maritime and Other Industries 299 

It attained a higher development at Sippican than Matta- 
poisett; yet the industry was largely developed in the latter 
village also, and is a part of the history of Rochester 
town. Abraham Holmes writing in 1821, says: 

" The principal manufacture of this town is salt. This 
business is carried on on an extensive scale and it is be- 
lieved that more salt is manufactured in this town than in 
any other town in the Commonwealth, and it is the most 
productive of any business here practised." 

During the Revolution salt had been in great demand, 
and some was obtained along the Buzzards Bay shores by 
the process of boiling sea-water. In 1806 a more import- 
ant salt industry was established in Rochester as well as 
in neighboring towns. The direct occasion of this was 
the Embargo Act, shutting out the salt from the West 
Indies, which had been the chief source of supply. 

The process used was one of simple evaporation, but 
required considerable machinery and equipment. The 
water was pumped from the sea by windmills, and carried 
through pipes (or tunneled logs) to shallow vats twelve 
or fifteen feet square, from which the water was evapo- 
rated by sun exposure, being carried from vat to vat at 
different stages of the process. There was a salt-house 
to receive the completed product, and at night and in 
rainy weather, great covers (or roofs), moved by heavy 
" crane-beams, " were placed over the vats to protect the 
drying salt. One "crane" of salt-works usually included 
four of these evaporating vats. 

People used to come in their wagons to the salt-works 
to purchase their home supply of salt, and much was also 
exported. It is said that in the days of the early boiling 
process, one enterprising salt-maker, made each year an 



300 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

ox- wagon-load of salt which he carried to Vermont. There 
he sold his oxen, returning with a fresh yoke of animals 
and a return freight of butter and cheese for the home 
market. 

In the days of the sun-evaporating process, much larger 
quantities were obtained. At the height of this industry 
twenty thousand bushels of salt were sometimes produced 
in the town during a single year. 

The largest salt-works of Sippican were those of Eben- 
ezer Holmes in the lower village near Nye's wharf, below 
the Sippican House. He lived to be a very old man, and 
continued to look after his salt-making through his closing 
years. There were many other salt-works, at Great Neck, 
Little Neck, along the shore of the upper village, and 
between the two villages. It is said that salt-works were 
"all over Sippican" and the windmills of these salt-works 
were a distinctive feature of the village landscape. The 
works of Captain Hammett were at the upper village; the 
Delano salt-works were at several localities, at one of 
which medicinal salts were manufactured. 

In Mattapoisett also, salt-works were carried on, at 
Aucoot Cove, at Goodspeed's Island, in a large field in 
the rear of the Baptist Church, and in other places. The 
last salt-maker was Isaac Hiller, who continued in this 
industry at Aucoot Cove until about the time of the Civil 
War. 

About 1812 the First Parish of Rochester, having at- 
tempted, without great success, to raise the minister's 
salary by voluntary subscription instead of by taxation, a 
movement was started to obtain a fund for church support 
by carrying on some parish salt-works. In 1815 six 
cranes of salt-works were built at Briggs's Neck, and 



Maritime and Other Industries 301 

others were added afterwards at different points on Sippi- 
can harbor. They did not prove financially profitable, 
however, and about 1838 these parish salt-works were 
sold. 

The September gale of 1815 was very damaging to the 
salt industry, not only spoiling the salt already made, but 
sweeping away the works themselves, which however, 
were afterwards rebuilt. 



CHAPTER XII 

MATTAPOISETT IN THE CIVIL WAR 

WHEN the news arrived of the firing on Fort Sumter, 
April 13, 1861, the same patriotic feeling that 
surged up and down through all the Northern States 
filled the breasts of our people, and the records of the 
town for the years 1861-65 show that Mattapoisett was 
not behind in its realization of the duty it owed to our 
common country. 

This being a seaport town, and the whaling industry 
being at its height, it was natural that the Navy should 
claim a large number of enlistments among the seafaring 
men, as was evidenced by the fact that out of one hun- 
dred and fifty men apportioned as our quota, sixty-five 
entered the Navy. 

During the year 1861 the town in its corporate capac- 
ity took no action in relation to the war, but during the 
year thirty-nine men entered the Army and Navy. On 
July 18, 1862, however, the town voted to pay a bounty 
of one hundred dollars to each volunteer, to the number 
of twenty, " who shall enlist within the next sixty days for 
three years or the war." The treasurer, with the consent 
of the selectmen, was authorized to borrow money to pay 
the same ; the interest and ten per cent of the capital to be 
paid annually until the debt should be discharged. 

August 7, 1862: Voted to increase the bounty for three 



Mattapoisett in the Civil War 303 

years' volunteers, fifty dollars, and fifty dollars additional 
to those who would enlist before the 15th of the month. 
August 30, 1862, voted to pay a bounty of one hundred 
and twenty-five dollars to each volunteer for nine months' 
service, to fill the quota of the town. December 15, 1862: 
Voted to pay a bounty of one hundred and fifty dollars to 
volunteers who enlist for three years and are credited to 
the quota of the town. 

In that year Thomas Nelson was appointed special 
recruiting agent for the town, and one of his grandsons 
has in his possession a poster which he, as agent, then put 
out, calling for volunteers. 

During 1863-64 the authorities continued to recruit 
men and pay bounties, but no special action appears to 
have been taken by the town in its corporate capacity 
except to appropriate money when necessary. 

In 1865, in the warrant for the annual town meeting in 
April, was an article "to see if the town will authorize 
the selectmen to borrow money to pay bounties to keep 
the quota of the town filled." During the proceedings 
of the meeting information was received from the South, 
and the clerk noted the fact on the town record in these 
words, written in large letters: "News of the Cap- 
ture of Richmond Received." In consequence of 
which no appropriation was made to pay bounties to 
volunteers, for the war was practically ended. 

Schouler, in his "Massachusetts in the Rebellion," says 
that " Mattapoisett furnished one hundred and fifty men 
for the military service, which was a surplus of eight over 
and above all demands." A careful count on the records 
shows that this town furnished one hundred and eighty men 
for the Army and Navy. The whole amount of money 



304 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

appropriated and expended by the town on account of 
the war was $7110. 

The following are the names of the men from Matta- 
poisett who gave up their lives in the great struggle: 

Edward F. Barlow, Co. E., 18th Mass. Reg., died 
September 3, 1864, while a prisoner at Andersonville 
prison, Georgia. 

John T. Barstow, Co. K., 1st Mass. Reg., died at 
Ascension Hospital, Washington, D. C, December 20, 
1862. 

John Bates, U.S.N., was killed March 22, 1862, at 
Mosquito Inlet, Fla., while on a boat expedition. 

Acting Master John S. Dennis, U.S.N., died February 
27, 1865, at New Madrid, Mo., while in command of 
U.S.S. Huntress. 

William C. Dexter, Co. E., 58th Mass. Reg., died in 
hospital at Fortress Monroe, August 4, 1864. 

Franklin A. Lobre, Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg., was taken 
prisoner December 10, 1862, at Plymouth, N. C, and 
died at Petersburg, Va., January 19, 1863. 

Elijah W. Randall, U.S.N., died on board U.S.S. 
Housatonicy April 19, 1863. 

Edward F. Snow, Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg., died at 
home, September 6, 1864, only four days after his dis- 
charge from the service. 

George D. Snow, Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg., was killed 
in action at Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862. 

William Henry Taber, Co. C, 17th Penn. Cav- 
alry, died March 18, 1862, in hospital at Mumfords- 
ville, Ky. 

Charles H. Tinkham, Co. D., 3d Mass. Reg., died 
at Newbern, N. C, November 30, 1862. 



Mattapoisett in the Civil War 305 

Ebenezer Tripp, Co. G., 20th Mass. Reg., was killed 
in action at Ball's Bluff, Va., October 24, 1861. 

George W. Wilcox, Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg., died 
August 23, 1862, in hospital at Philadelphia. 

William S. Wilcox, 5th Batt. Lt. Art., died November 
28, 1862, in hospital at Falmouth, Va. 

The names of Amittai B. Hammond, Joseph E. Smith, 
Jarvis Ellis, Nathan H. Barstow, Thomas P. Hammond, 
Josiah Holmes, Jr., Wilson Barstow, and Franklin Cross 
should ever be held in grateful remembrance by the people 
of Mattapoisett, for it was these men who, as selectmen 
during the years 1861-65, piloted the town through the 
serious turmoil of war. 

The name of Thomas Nelson should also be gratefully 
remembered, for it was he, as Town Clerk, through the 
same years, who kept a most careful record of the service 
of every man who enlisted from the town, and as recruiting 
agent, and in service to the families of men at the front, 
he in many ways endeared himself to the people. 

Too much credit also cannot be awarded to the women 
of the town for their zeal in working faithfully for the 
soldiers and sailors, while in the field, in the hospital, or 
on board the ships of the Navy. There are no records 
to show how much was thus done, but if there were, Matta- 
poisett, we are sure, would be proud of their service there 
shown. 

During the Civil War a number of vessels from these 
ports were taken by Confederate cruisers. One of these 
was the bark Ocean Rover, the last whaler built and fitted 
in Mattapoisett before the war. She carried four Matta- 
poisett men, James M. Clark, Captain; William Harlow, 
second mate ; Marshall Keith, fourth mate ; and Charles B. 



306 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Hammond, boat steerer; of whom Mr. Hammond is the 
only survivor. On the 8th of September, 1862, while lying 
in almost a dead calm about fifteen miles off the island 
of Flores, the Ocean Rover was overtaken by the Con- 
federate cruiser Alabama. Seeing that capture was in- 
evitable, Captain Clark ordered the stars and stripes set 
and helpless in the calm summer evening the whaler 
awaited her fate. The officers and crew received very 
courteous treatment from the Confederates. Having 
signed the parole of honor, they were sent with their 
personal effects to Ponta Delgada, Flores, and on the 
following day the Ocean Rover was burned. Another 
was the Altamaha, from Marion, commanded by Captain 
Gray, with Capt. Judah Hathaway, of Rochester, as mate 
and part owner, and James R. Blankinship, of Matta- 
poisett, second mate. The Altamaha was captured by 
the Alabama and burned, and the officers and men sent 
to Fayal. In later years the owners and crews of these 
vessels gained some restitution in the form of "Alabama 
Claims." 

It took Mattapoisett a number of years to recover from 
the financial drain of this four years' war, chiefly on ac- 
count of the decline of the ship-building and whaling 
industries, the proceeds of which had been its mainstay. 
Conditions to-day are very different than they were in 
1861-65, but if called upon again, as in those years, we 
feel sure that this town would respond as generously as 
before. 

October 22, 1904, a fine monument, as a memorial to 
the men of Mattapoisett who gave their lives in the ser- 
vice of their country, was appropriately dedicated by visit- 
ing posts of the G.A.R., Naval Veterans, Sons of Veterans, 




X = 



Mattapoisett in the Civil War 307 

and the school children. This monument was the gift 
of George Purrington, Jr., and stands on a lot on Barstow 
Street purchased with a special fund which had been held 
by the town for several years. 

There is in town an organization known as the Army 
and Navy Memorial Association, composed of veterans 
and their wives, and several others, formed for the pur- 
pose of perpetuating the proper observance of Memorial 
Day. 

List of men who served in the Civil War from Matta- 
poisett : 

Ames, Loring T. 

Bannon, Alexander, Co. K., 58th Mass. Reg. 
Barlow, Edward F., Co. E., 18th Mass. Reg. 
Barlow, Gideon B., Co. B., 3d Reg. H.A. 
Barrows, Alpheus, Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg., also Co. F., 

53d Mass. H.A. 
Barrows, Andrew J., Co. F., 3d Mass. H.A. 
Barrows, George, Co. L., 3d Mass. Reg. 
Barstow, Elijah W., 1st Lieut., Co. — , 3d Mass. H.A., 

also 1st Lieut., Co. H., 5th U.S. Art. 
Barstow, John T., Co. K., 1st Mass. Reg. 
Barstow, Josiah M., U.S.N. 
Barstow, Solomon, Master's Mate, U.S.N. 
Barstow, Wilson, Jr., 37th Reg. New York Vols., Ensign 

Capt., Lt. Col., Col., and Brevet Brig. Gen. 
Barstow, Zaccheus M., Co. D., 23d Mass. Reg. 
Bates, John, U.S.N. 
Bolles, Charles E., U.S.N. 
Bourne, Edmund L., Acting Ensign, U.S.N. 
Bourne, George W., Acting Master, U.S.N. 



308 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Bowman, Ebenezer H., U.S.N. 
Buck, Charles H., Acting Ensign, U.S.N. 
Burbank, Charles M., Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg. 
Butts, Joseph A., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Cannon, Fred J., Co. B., 3d Mass. Reg. H.A. 

Cannon, Thomes J., Acting Ensign, U.S.N. 

Carpenter, Wright, Co. D., 23d Mass. Reg. 

Carr, John P., Acting Master, U.S.N. 

Caswell, Elbridge G., Master's Mate, U.S.N. 

Clark, Elijah W., Acting Ensign, U.S.N. 

Clark, Freeman, Co. E., 18th Mass. Reg. 

Covert, Eugene S., Co. E., 18th Mass. Reg. 

Cowell, William G., Acting Ensign, U.S.A. 

Crosby, E. Frank, Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Crosby, William K., Co. C, 8th Vermont Reg., also 

1st Lieut., 1st Louisiana Reg. 
Cushing, Edward L., U.S.N. 

Davis, Lemuel LeB., U.S.N. 

Davis, Thomas R., U.S.N. 

Dennis, John, S., Acting Master, U.S.N. 

Dexter, Albert M., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Dexter, Benjamin 2d, U.S.N. 

Dexter, Elisha L., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Dexter, Francis E., U.S.N. 

Dexter, George, Co. K., 8th California Reg. 

Dexter, George H., Master's Mate, U.S.N. 

Dexter, Horace, U.S.N. 

Dexter, James W., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Dexter, Thomas D., Co. E., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Dexter, William C, Co. E., 58th Mass. Reg. 



Mattapoisett in the Civil War 309 

Eaton, Solomon K, 1st Lieut., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 
Ellis, Albert, U.S.N., also Co. R, 3d Reg. Mass. H.A. 
Ellis, Daniel S., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg., also 23d Unat- 
tached Co., Mass. Vols. 

Gallon, James, Co. E., 18th Mass. Reg. 

Gifford, Charles P., U.S.N. 

Gifford, Jesse C, Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg. 

Gifford, John L., Acting Vol. Lieut., U.S.N. 

Gifford, Robinson, U.S.N. 

Gifford, William C, Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg., also Co. F., 

3d Mass. Reg. H.A. 
Goodspeed, Oliver J., Co. B., 3d Mass. Reg. H.A., also 

U.S.N. 
Gorham, Albert H., U.S.N. 
Graham, William H., Musician, 9th Mass. Reg. 

Hammond, B. Frank, 23d Unattached Co. Mass. Vols. 
Hammond, George F., Acting Master, U.S.N. 
Hammond, James A., 23d Unattached Co. Mass. Vols. 
Hammond, John W., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 
Hammond, Larnet H., Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg. 
Hammond, Roland, Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 
Harris, William Jr., Co. B., 15th New Hampshire 

Reg. 
Hayden, Benjamin F., Co. D., 18th Mass. Vols. 
Hayden, Charles H., Co. C, 29th Mass. Reg. 
Hiller, Alpheus B., Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg., also Co. E., 

32d Mass. Reg. 
Hiller, Ebenezer R., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 
Holmes, Heman G., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg., also Masters 

Mate, U.S.N. 



310 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Howes, Woodbridge R., 1st Lieut., Co. D., 18th Mass. 
Reg., also Asst. Surgeon, 3d Mass. Reg. 

Johnson, Thomas W., Acting Master, U.S.N. 
Jordan, Samuel R., 5th Battery, Light Art. 

Keith, Albert, Acting Master, U.S.N. 

Keith, Charles F., Acting Master, U.S.N. 

King, James W., Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg., also 2d 
Lieut., Co. C, 32d Mass. Reg. 

Kinney, Jireh, Jr., Co., E., 1st Rhode Island Reg.; 2d 
Serg. Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg.; 2d Lieut., 23d Unat- 
tached Co. Mass. Vols. 

Kinney, William H., U.S.N. 

Lawson, Elias, Acting Ensign, U.S.N. 

Leavitt, Robert E., U.S.N., also Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

LeBaron, Frederick L., Master's Mate, U.S.N. 

LeBaron, John A., Co. C, 71st Pennsylvania Reg. 

LeBaron, William H., U.S.N. 

Leonard, Nahum Jr., Capt., 58th Mass. Reg. 

Lobre, Franklin A., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Look, Gilbert A., Co. E., 2d Heavy Art. 

Luce, Shubael K., Acting Master, U.S.N. 

Merrithew, Alexander C, U.S.N. 

Morse, Edward A., Master's Mate, U.S.N. 

Morse, Frederick L., 23d Unattached Co., Mass. Vols. 

Morse, George F., Acting Ensign, U.S.N. 

Morse, Theodore S., Master's Mate, U.S.N. 

Nye, Charles H., Boatswain's Mate, U.S.N. 






Mattapoisett in the Civil War 311 

Nye, Mavro C, Master's Mate, U.S.N. 

O'Connor, Daniel, Co. D., 58th Mass. Reg. 

Paine, Francis M., Acting Master, U.S.N. 

Peck, George G., Co. D., 7th Mass. Reg. 

Peckham, William F., Co. F., 18th Mass. Reg., also 

Co. D., 1st Battery H.A. 
Perchard, Clement H., Acting Ensign, U.S.N., also 

Co. A., 50th Mass. Reg. 
Phelan, John E., 23d Unattached Co. Mass. Vols. 
Pierce, George, Co. F., 29th Mass. Reg. 
Purrington, Francis M., Co. E., 18th Mass. Reg., also 

Co. H., 32d Mass. Reg. 
Purrington, Henry J., Musician, 19th Mass. Reg. 
Purrington, John A., Musician, 19th Mass. Reg., also 

Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Randall, Charles H., Co. G., 2d N. H. Reg. 

Randall, Elijah W., U.S.N. 

Randall, Fayette E., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Randall, George W., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Ransom, Sidney, U.S.N. 

Ransom, Theodore S., Master's Mate, U.S.N. 

Richmond, William L., Co. F., 19th Mass. Reg., also 

U.S.N. 
Robinson, Benjamin F., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg., also 

Master's Mate, U.S.N. 
Rounseville, Job P., Acting Master, U.S.N. 
Rounseville, William H., Co. K., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Sherman, Noah, Hospital Nurse. 



312 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Shurtleff, Henry A., 23d Unattached Co. Mass. Vols. 

Simpson, Oscar, U.S.N. 

Smith, James, A., Co. I., 13th Mass. Reg., also Co. H., 

58th Mass. Reg. 
Smith, John, U.S.N. 
Snow, Allen W., Acting Ensign, U.S.N. 
Snow, Charles F., Co. D., 22d Mass. Reg., also Co. L., 

32d Mass. Reg. 
Snow, Edward F., Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg. 
Snow, Elisha, U.S.N. 
Snow, George D., Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg. 
Snow, Henry L., U.S.N., also Co. B., 3d Mass. H.A. 
Snow, Silas W., Co. B., 3d Mass. Reg. H.A. 
Sparrow, William E., Volunteer Surgeon. 
Stone, Richard, U.S.N. 
Sweat, William W., Volunteer Surgeon. 
Tinkham, Charles H., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 

Tripp, Charles A., U.S.N. 

Tripp, Ebenezer, Co. G., 20th Mass. Reg. 

Tripp, Job. P., Co. D., 47th Mass. Reg. 

Washburn, John M., Co. A., 60th Mass. Reg. 
Waterman, Sylvanus D., Co. I., 3d Mass. Reg. 
Weston, Lewis S., Co. E., 18th Mass. Reg. 
Wilbur, John E., Co. B., 3d Mass. Reg. 
Wilcox, George W., Co. D., 18th Mass. Reg. 
Wilcox, William S., 5th Battery Light Art. 
Wright, Henry M., 23d Unattached Co. Mass. Vols. 



CHAPTER XIII 



MATTAPOISETT THE TOWN 



f | ^HERE came a time when the inconvenience of 
-*- administering the affairs of a large territory with 
two centers of population grew serious. It was felt most 
keenly when some three hundred or four hundred voters 
had to travel eight or nine miles either to the Town Hall 
in Rochester Center, or to Minister Robbins' meeting-house 
near the sea, to attend town meeting; and it gradually 
became a bitter fight of section against section as to where 
these meetings should be held. So there was little oppo- 
sition when in 1857 the adherents of the "meeting house," 
secured incorporation as a separate body. The name 
which the new town should bear was already long settled. 
As early as 1640, certain parties were granted lands in 
"Mattapoyst," and in 1674 the vicinity of the present 
village had become well known as " Mattapoisett." Ac- 
cording to a survey of Ansel Weeks, in September, 1857, 
the division line began at a stone post in the Fairhaven 
line, " thence E. 5° S. to road of Ellis's Mill, to the brook 
from Ellis's Mill to the Wolf Island Road, to Mattapoisett 
River, by the river to a stone post. From the post to 
Rock Bridge course E. 2° S., to Cedar Swamp, across 
the swamp to upland, to the Boat Rock road, to the Bear 
Swamp, across the Swamp to Towsers Neck, across 
Towsers Neck to Haskells Mill Swamp, across this Swamp 



314 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

to the Eben Snow old town road, to the Bonney road, to 
road from four corners to Anthony lot, to the Marion 
line. ,, 

The youthful town started on its new career under the 
most favorable auspices. In the first meeting the utmost 
harmony prevailed. The assembly was called by the 
warrant of Amittai B. Hammond, Justice of the Peace, 
directed to Rogers L. Barstow, a "principal citizen." It 
met in Purrington Hall, then recently erected on the 
former site of Eaton Hall, on Saturday, June 20, 1857, 
and proceeded to elect officers to conduct its affairs. 

There were gathered within "Mattapoisett" a popu- 
lation of about seventeen hundred sturdy, industrious 
people. Farming was on the increase, but the whal- 
ing industry, with ship-building and the necessary ac- 
companying trades, was the principal occupation of the 
town. For a few years no busier community could be 
found. The apparent prosperity was, however, but tran- 
sient; a cloud appeared on the horizon, and the spirit of 
civil war was soon hovering over even the peaceful village 
by the sea. At the same time there became evident the 
sure and rapid decline of "whaling," which was in a few 
years to sound the knell of the entire mechanical industry 
of the town. 

The rather serious-mindedness, but deep religious faith 
of the early settlers in this crisis is well shown by this 
paragraph from the report of the school committee in 1861 : 

"We would suggest that the present gloomy aspect of 
our political, commercial, and industrial affairs should 
impress our minds with the importance of a faithful dis- 
charge of duty to our children. If, then, the hope of trans- 
mitting to them political blessings is overcast, — if the 



Mattapoisett the Town 315 

wish to bequeath affluence seems doomed to disappoint- 
ment, — we should solicitously endeavor to prepare them 
for the future, by storing their minds with that true wisdom 
which holds ' length of days in her right hand, and in her 
left hand riches and honor.'" 

At the opening of the war, nearly fifty vessels engaged 
in the whale fishery were owned in whole or in part in 
Mattapoisett. The ravages of the Confederate cruisers 
only hastened the inevitable, and vacant wharves, unused 
ship-yards, and empty houses were the signs of a pros- 
perity that had departed. 

Industrially the town never recovered from the blow. 
A few attempts were made to regain the lost ground. In 
1880 the town voted "to exempt from taxation for five 
or ten years any parties who will start some manufacturing 
business in our town that will give employment to our 
citizens." And the next year the selectmen were author- 
ized "to expend not exceeding $75 in advertising the 
business facilities of the town, and exemption from taxa- 
tion." And the citizens contributed liberally from their 
private resources to erect and furnish a factory building. 
No permanent business, however, could be obtained. 

The advent of the "summer resident" in the "seven- 
ties " was the beginning of a new era. The accompanying 
increase in the real and personal property brought the 
valuation of the town, which had shrunk from $800,000, 
to $480,000 in 1865, to its highest mark in 1876. The tax 
rate, however, has always remained nearly stationary, 
ranging from $6 to $9.50 on $1000. During the height 
of ship-building some seventy-five yoke of cattle might 
have been seen engaged in the laborious work of moving 
heavy timber, spars, and other materials, and in 1861 



316 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

there were taxed fifty-five yoke of oxen and fifty-seven 
sheep. 

Mattapoisett has been a good example of a true democ- 
racy, a real government " by the people.'* Its town meet- 
ings have always been well attended and the fullest dis- 
cussion of affairs has been the rule. And as always results 
from such interest, her finances and affairs have been 
ably managed. 

The town meetings, up to the time of the building of 
the Town Hall, were held in Purrington Hall, with a few 
exceptions such as the case when in 1863 "the meeting 
met in front of Barstow Hall, and not being able to find 
the key to the hall organized upon the sidewalks and 
adjourned to the store formerly occupied by L. Meigs & 
Co.," and again when in 1867 the meeting met in front 
of Purrington Hall and, for a similar reason, adjourned to 
the "sail loft," or an occasional meeting in the "Engine 
House." Barstow Hall was in the second story at the east 
end of what is now the "Mattapoisett House." Loring 
Meigs's store was burned and the town now owns its site, 
by purchase with the wharf property. The sail loft was 
in the storehouse building still standing at the head of 
Long Wharf, while the old engine house, which formerly 
stood on part of the present town hall lot, has, after serving 
as a church, engine house, town hall, and shop, become 
a tenement house on Baptist Street. 

Perhaps the most memorable town meeting was that 
of April 3, 1865, when, just after acting on the eleventh 
article in the warrant, this entry appears on the clerk's 
records: "News of the Capture of Richmond Re- 
ceived. " At the same meeting, the fourteenth article, 
which related to "keeping full the town's proportion of 



Mattapoisett the Town 317 

the quota of volunteers called for from the Common- 
wealth," was passed, on account of the "news from 
Richmond." 

In addition to furnishing volunteers, the town, in 1862, 
offered to open a hospital for sick and disabled soldiers, 
but it was not needed. 

Amid the serious discussion of municipal affairs there 
was always present a sense of humor — on one occasion 
under an article " to see if the town will prohibit playing 
ball or passing, throwing and catching balls or kicking foot- 
balls within the following limits, viz. : from the house of 
the late Wilson Barstow on Main Street, within the limits 
of said Main Street to Mechanic Street," the vote was to 
make the limits " from Jarvis Ellis' to Wm. Richmonds " 
(the extreme north and south ends of the town). 

How the voters should be notified was settled by 
directing, in 1867, that a copy of the articles in the 
warrant should be posted "upon the oak tree on the 
corner near Abraham Tinkhams (still used for the pur- 
pose), at the Town Mills, Cowins Mills, and at the Post 
Office." 

Out of the twenty-one district schools in Rochester in 
1857, ten came within the limits of the new town of Matta- 
poisett. There were at the time " academies " in the town, 
"second, we believe, to none in this Commonwealth." 
But the defective district school system was a constant 
source of trouble. Each district, through its " Prudential 
Committee," provided its schoolhouses and expended the 
money appropriated by the town for the support of the 
school as it saw fit. The office of the Prudential Com- 
mittee, including as it did the power of hiring teachers, 
having charge of the schoolhouse and the running of the 



318 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

school, carried with it considerable patronage, and was 
the cause of fierce, if limited, political struggles. As one 
committee on investigation remarked, "the chief quali- 
fication of a member of a Prudential Committee seems 
to have been not to have served the preceding year." 

That the district schools did their work as thoroughly 
as they did, has been the wonder of later times. Perhaps 
the secret may be found in this statement from the school 
committee's report in 1857: "But few branches of study 
should be prosecuted at a given time. Not the quantity, 
but the quality of learning should be considered. Better 
to learn a little thoroughly, assuredly, than a great deal 
superficially and doubtfully." 

The village districts were, in 1857, at once combined, 
and in the first school committee's report, the districts 
were defined as: 

District No. 1. Mattapoisett Neck, where in that year 
there was no summer term, but for three months in the 
winter, fifteen scholars were taught by Mr. John W. 
Hammond, who "proved a competent teacher," so that 
the committee thought the school " would compare favor- 
ably with most any other district school in the town." It 
occupied rented quarters, having the year before been 
taught by Mrs. E. R. Beetle at her residence, and in 1855 
in the "Upper Chamber" a building erected or used for 
a corn granary, and "illy adapted" for school pur- 
poses. 

District No. 2. Hammondtown, with E. G. Caswell, 
Sr., Prudential Committee, had six months of "school." 
In the summer Miss Almira E. Denham taught eighteen 
scholars, and in the winter Noah Hammond had thirty- 
two. It was the first school either had taught, but was 





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Mattapoisett the Town 319 

satisfactory to the committee, "and we think to the dis- 
trict." 

Districts Nos. 3 and 4 were united and comprised the 
village west of Barstow Street. About fifty pupils had 
school for seven and one-half months with Miss Buretta 
W. Hammond as principal and Miss Olivia H. Freeman, 
assistant, in the summer; and Miss Abby P. LeBaron 
and Miss Mary E. Davis in charge in the winter. "The 
school, though a large one, was very quiet." 

Districts Nos. 5, 6, and 7 were also consolidated and 
included the easterly portion of the village and as far east 
as "Thomas Dexter 's corner." This was in the summer 
divided into an "Intermediate Department" in charge 
of Miss Olivia R. Look; and a "Primary School" taught 
by Miss Mary E. Davis, "whose demeanor was char- 
acterized by mildness and affability." For the winter 
term, " Mr. Henry Taylor gave his whole attention to the 
school, and gave general satisfaction." 

District No. 8, "Pine Islands," maintained less than 
six months of school. Miss Mary Hammond taught 
twenty-four pupils in the summer, and Mr. George Cush- 
man had forty-two for the winter term. 

District No. 9, "Aucoot," with Isaac Hiller, Prudential 
Committee, and Miss Salome E. Bates and Miss Priscilla 
Sparrow, teachers, had five and one-half months of school, 
with nine scholars in the summer and seventeen in the 
winter. 

District No. 10, " Tinkhamtown " and "Randalltown," 
included all north of Captain Hoxie's and James Purring- 
ton's, and with Thomas Randall, Prudential Committee, 
had six and one-half months of school for twenty-eight 
scholars, with Miss Marv K. Clark as teacher. "In No. 



320 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

10," the committee reported, "although there are two 
places where children go to school, at neither is there any- 
thing that resembles a decent schoolhouse. . . . The 
citizens of this district understand economy too well to 
repair these old buildings, and there being no immediate 
prospect of agreeing on the location of a new one, it seems 
a most auspicious time to unite with number 2, — although 
this district has evidently the next poorest schoolhouse in 
the town." 

The faults lay with the system, for as the committee 
reported, the town that year appropriated $1524, "which 
is all that the most zealous friends of common schools 
can ask so far as money is concerned." They complain 
that "the town committee have not been heretofore con- 
sidered of much consequence in connection with the 
schools," and congratulate the town that "schools have 
been kept two terms in all the districts but one, which has 
not been the case for many years." 

In 1862 another consolidation was brought about by 
joining districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, thus bringing together all the 
village districts, and in 1867 the town, after repeated at- 
tempts, voted to abolish school districts. The income of a 
bequest of Abner Pease, in favor of districts Nos. 8 and 
9, enabled a school to be kept for an additional seven weeks 
in schoolhouse No. 3 in 1869. 

From this time the common schools of Mattapoisett 
passed through only the customary evolution, until in 1899 
the new building, a gift of Mr. Henry H. Rogers (who 
received a part of his early education in the private school, 
kept by Mr. Woodbridge Howes, in Eaton Hall) was 
opened, and all grades above the sixth were brought under 
its roof. 



Mattapoisett the Town 321 

As a result of a desire of those inhabitants of Rochester, 
living within the limits of Mattapoisett, to secure for their 
children the benefits of a higher education than could be 
obtained in the district schools, some public-spirited 
parties secured control of a large interest in the old Con- 
gregational meeting-house. And in 1854, James Barstow, 
B. F. Hammond, A. B. Hammond, Seth Freeman, Wm. B. 
Rogers, John Atsatt, Loring Meigs, Arvin Cannon, Leonard 
Hammond, Matthew Mayhew, Nathan Crosby, Andrew 
Southworth, Benjamin Barstow, Nathan'l A. Crosby, John 
A. Le Baron, Cynthia Dexter, Nathan'l Clark, Alice 
Sparrow, Deborah F. Howes, W. Barstow, Bethuel Landers, 
Jabez Goodspeed, Judith C. Rogers, H. M. Cannon, 
Martha O. Young, Priscilla A. Southworth, Priscilla N. 
Hammond, Peleg Pearce, Isaiah Sears, Benjamin Bacon, 
Leonard Dexter, all of Mattapoisett in the Town of 
Rochester; and Lazarus LeBaron, of North Turner, 
County of Oxford, State of Maine, Yeomen, " In consider- 
ation of our desire to promote the cause of education," 
conveyed unto Loring Meigs, Henry Barstow, and Abner 
Harlow, "who have been appointed a committee by the 
subscribers of the Stock in the property hereinafter, con- 
veyed to receive the title to the same," all their interest 
in and to the Old Congregational Meeting-House, so 
called; "It is hereby understood that said Meeting-House 
shall be fitted up in a manner suitable to be occupied as 
a place where instruction may be given to youth, and said 
building shall be used for such purposes." 

The building was promptly fitted up and a private 
school successfully opened. In 1857 the "Mattapoisett 
Academy," then conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Orange H. 
Spoor and Miss Lucy B. Washburn, had enrolled 133 



3%2 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

pupils, including 36 from other towns and 7 from other 
states. Its catalogue showed English, Classical, and 
Teachers' Departments, with special courses in "Music, 
Pencilling and Crayoning, Monochromatic and other 
ornamental branches." It was "partially supplied with 
chemical and philosophical apparatus," and had "a spa- 
cious gallery fitted up for the especial accommodation of 
visitors, who can call at any time without interrupting 
the school." The trustees then were Loring Meigs, Maj. 
Rogers L. Barstow, and Capt. Samuel Sturtevant, Jr. 
Arvin Cannon was treasurer, and Solomon K. Eaton sec- 
retary. 

In 1860, in order to straighten out the title, the property 
was conveyed to John T. Atsatt, by Loring Meigs, Henry 
Barstow, Abner Harlow, Rowland Howland, Arvin Can- 
non, James LeBaron, Solomon K. Eaton, Matthew May- 
hew, Samuel Sturtevant, Jr., Wilson Barstow, executor 
to estate of Z. M. Barstow, Joseph Hudson, Samuel 
Sturtevant, Jr., Rogers L. Barstow, Cynthia Dexter, 
Josiah Holmes, Jr., Jonathan H. Holmes, Dennis S. 
Boodry, Nathan'l A. Crosby, John Dexter, Nathan Crosby, 
James Cannon, Martin Hall, Lemuel LeBaron, Wm. L. 
Bourne, Ebenezer Jones, Barton Taber, and George 
Purrington, Jr., "in consideration of $1725." In this deed 
the property is described as " a certain lot of land with the 
buildings thereon, and also the fixtures therein, consisting 
of Pieoano, Seets, Desks, Bell, Philosophical Aparatus, 
etc., and known as the Mattapoisett Academy." 

The private institution was successfully maintained 
until the stress of war times came on, and its then instructor, 
George G. Harriman, took charge in 1862 of the village 
Grammar School. Capt. Zaccheus M. Barstow, having 



Mattapoisett the Town 323 

left property to the town valued at nearly $9000, and 
provided that upon the winding up of the Lyceum that 
the income of his gift " be applied to the purposes of edu- 
cation in higher branches than are taught in primary 
English Schools," his trustees purchased from the pro- 
prietors the Academy building for $1450 out of the in- 
come, and in 1872 it was turned over to the town, "in 
trust as a part of the Barstow School Trust Fund." The 
Barstow School was opened (as a result of the legacy 
above referred to) in December, 1871, and Mr. Charles 
Smith, "with a registry of forty-six scholars, successfully 
operated during a term of three months." 

The town the next year made an appropriation in aid 
of the "Barstow School," and has continued to do so to 
the present time. The school was transferred in 1899 
to the new village building, and beginning with this year 
(1906-07) its scholars have the privilege of attending, 
without cost, the new High School in Fairhaven. 

The year 1881 witnessed the birth of the "Free Public 
Library" in Mattapoisett. The beginning was certainly 
humble. At the annual meeting that year, the town 
voted that the "dog fund" should go to its aid, but this 
amount of $56.96 did not become available until the 
close of the year. Isaiah P. Atsatt at the same meeting, 
agreed to furnish a room and librarian for two years, and 
"Capt. Charles Bryant kindly volunteered a lecture on 
Alaska," the net proceeds of which, $7.20, were the only 
" available assets " of the first trustees. The Selectmen's 
office over" Atsatt's store " was used for a short time. Then 
an unused room in the upper story of the "Primary" 
schoolhouse was fitted with a few shelves and a high desk 
in a section railed off. " Col. Geo. M. Barnard, Jr., pre- 



324 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

sented a large quantity of periodicals, some of them in 
bound volumes. With this kind donation, together with 
about twenty-five volumes, contributed in town in answer 
to printed solicitations," the library was opened to the 
public, and on Saturday afternoons sturdy children tug- 
ging homeward ancient half-year volumes of the Illustrated 
London News were often met. Monday evening, after 
seven o'clock, was "Library night," and was usually so 
popular that one had to draw a number for his turn, and 
the assistant in charge (on a salary of $18 per annum) 
frequently required the active aid of one or two of the 
trustees. On some week in the winter, books were called 
in, the library closed for the "annual examination, " when 
the trustees assembled in solemn session, verified the count 
and inspected the condition of all the books. In two years 
the library had accumulated 728 volumes and a cata- 
logue was issued. "Young ladies entertainments " are 
credited as adding to the funds and " Johnnie Morgan " 
and "Sunflower choruses" helped secure additional 
books. Steadily increasing rows of manilla covered 
book-backs, yellowed and soiled by constant wear, crept 
around the sides of the room and filled the available wall 
space. In 1892 the library was moved to a vacant store 
on the northeast corner of Main and Cannon streets, 
and thereafter was opened four times a week. In 1897 
the town made an extra appropriation of $100 to fit up a 
connecting reading-room, and that year the library was 
opened for one afternoon and six evenings in the 
week. 

A most happy event was the offer of Mr. George Pur- 
rington, Jr., in the town meeting of 1902, of $10,000 for 
a building. As a result of this gift the present building 



Mattapoisett the Town 325 

was erected upon a lot given by Mr. Samuel D. Warren. 
Money from the estate of William B. Rogers, in the hands 
of J. Chas. F. Atsatt, furnished book stacks and an 
acetylene plant. In the meantime the trustees had secured 
the re-cataloguing of the 4600 volumes then on hand ; and 
in 1904 the "free public library" stood well housed and 
equipped to influence the future intellectual life of the 
town. 

The list of trustees is as follows: Rev. Augustus H. 
Fuller, 1881-86; George H. Dexter, 1881-1905; William 
B. Nelson, 1881-93; Isaiah P. Atsatt, 1881-90; J. Chas. 
F. Atsatt, 1881-90, and 1893-95; William E. Sparrow, 
Jr., 1889-91; Sarah H. Crosby, 1892-93; Lemuel LeB. 
Dexter, 1894 — ; Nathan Smith, 1905 — ; Dr. Irving 
N. Tilden, 1905 — . 

Despite the pranks of mischievous youth, of which 
Mattapoisett has had its full share, its local history has 
been essentially peaceful. 

Illustrating the seriousness of offenses which have at 
times disturbed the serenity of the town, it appears that 
at one time the Selectmen were authorized "to provide 
a place to detain truants," and the question naturally 
arises, — were they to be detained from school ? Also in 
1868 it was voted " to instruct the Selectmen to offer a 
reward of $20 for such information as shall lead to the 
conviction of any man, woman, boy or girl, breaking glass 
in town." History does not relate whether any women 
or girls were convicted. 

The problem of providing a place in which to main- 
tain its poor had early attracted the attention of the 
town. In 1865 the selectmen were authorized to pur- 
chase "the Barstow House," now the "Mattapoisett 



326 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

House," and the "Harris House" later the Gammons 
house near J. L. Stackpole's cottage, which at present is 
the Nye house on Baptist street, was also proposed ; but no 
action was taken until in 1866 the "Joseph Hiller Farm" 
was purchased and fitted up as an almshouse. After a 
few years however, the number of inmates began to de- 
crease and the "poor house" is now hardly more than 
a name. The Rebellion forced the dependent relatives 
of many soldiers and sailors to seek aid toward their 
support, and in 1866 the town paid from the treasury 
the largest sum ever required for its poor. Of late years 
these expenses have been rapidly growing less. Addi- 
tional purchases of land have added to the almshouse 
farm, and it is now a very valuable property, with its 
shore frontage on Aucoot Cove. 

The village of Mattapoisett was equipped with fire 
apparatus before the separation from Rochester. The 
act of incorporation provided that "Mattapoisett shall 
pay to Rochester their proportion of twelve hundred dollars 
for the interest they have in the fire department; and 
Rochester shall relinquish all right and claim in said fire 
department to Mattapoisett." The next year the town 
voted "to accept Engine No. 1, with a company not 
exceeding 20 members to draw pay," and proceeded to 
purchase an engine house and fixtures for $396.49. And 
in 1859 it was reported, "the town now owns 1 Engine 
House and Lot, 2 Fire Engines, 12 leather and 11 wooden 
buckets, 25 feet suction hose, 600 feet leading hose, 2 
torches, 1 lantern, 2 stoves and pipe, 4 fire hooks, 4 ladders 
about 100 feet, all in good condition for the relief of any 
portion of community that may be invaded by the calamity 
of fire." Engine No. 1 was kept in a shed in company 



Mattapoisett the Town 327 

with the "hearse," on the premises of Prince Bolles on 
North Street. 

One very disastrous fire took place shortly before the 
incorporation of the town. It burned the "County 
House," as was called the hotel run by Leonard Ham- 
mond; the large stable with adjoining sheds belonging to 
the hotel, Eaton Hall, a boat-shop, Hammond's store then 
run by George Purrington, Jr., a "nine pin alley," and 
Jonathan H. Holmes's house. The fire swept towards 
the west, and after an unsuccessful attempt to blow up 
Eaton Hall, Jonathan H. Holmes's house was blown up 
and the flames stopped. It was during one of the coldest 
winter nights ever known in the town, and was the worst 
experience the town has ever had from fire. The stable 
stood where Thomas Luce's stable now stands; County 
House where the cellar hole may still be seen, just to the 
east of Purrington Block; Eaton Hall occupied the pres- 
ent location of Purrington Hall, and Jonathan Holmes's 
house was where Mendell's drug store now stands; the 
horse chestnut tree, which stood in Holmes's front yard, 
though injured, survived the fire and still stands. In 1857 
S. K. Eaton was paid for "a plan of burnt district," and 
"James Ruggles's Vigilence Committee" received a large 
sum for investigating the causes of the fire. Another 
unusual fire was that of June 27, 1846, when the whale- 
ship, Joseph Meigs, which had just arrived here from a 
voyage with a full cargo and was anchored just inside 
Mattapoisett Light, waiting for an opportunity to reach 
Long Wharf, was burned to the water's edge. The fire 
was late at night and the burning oil made a brilliant 
spectacle. It is interesting that the hulk was towed 
ashore, the upper works rebuilt, and the ship again sailed. 



328 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Other fires might be mentioned, but in general the fire 
department has ably coped with the "invader," and 
Mattapoisett has been spared since 1857 a serious 
"calamity of fire." 

Its herring or alewife fishery has always been a matter 
of considerable value, as well as of annual interest to the 
town. The fish formed no small part of the food of many 
a family and the receipts from the sales were at times quite 
large. How valuable the "run" was, is shown by the 
numerous acts of legislature obtained to "preserve the 
fish called Alewives in Mattapoisett River." In 1788 a 
forfeiture of ten pounds was provided for any one who 
should set a net in the harbor " between the southwesterly 
end of the island, owned by Rev. Mr. La Barron, and from 
thence to the mouth of the creek which runs out of Bar- 
low's Pond"; and in 1811 the excluded limits were made 
"northward of a line running directly from the most 
southerly part of Capt. Job Haskell's farm on the westerly 
side of the harbor, to the most southerly part of Joseph 
Edward's land (now Ned's Point), on the easterly side 
of said harbor." The same protection was in 1830 
extended to shad. 

In the very first year we find a payment to Noah 
Spooner of $185.89, the "expense of petitioning for a new 
herring river." 

In 1860 it was voted "to divide the income of the herring 
stream on the polls." Apparently the legality of the vote 
was questioned, as J. B. Ransom and James LeBaron 
were appointed a committee to get legal advice on the 
subject of division "and pay their own expenses." As a 
matter of fact, the Supreme Court afterwards decided 
that such a division could not be made. 



Mattapoisett the Town 329 

Not satisfied with the run of herring in Mattapoisett 
River, in 1865 the town voted to establish a herring 
fishery in the creek or outlet leading from the Eel or 
Barlow's Pond to the harbor. An act of the legislature 
was obtained under which an abutment was built along 
the east side of the creek, and an attempt was made 
to induce an annual run of herring, but it was never very 
successful. An attempt had previously been made by a 
company of individuals, incorporated as the "Mattapoi- 
sett Oyster Co.," to plant and raise oysters in this pond 
and creek, but while partially successful, both herring and 
oysters seemed to prefer the deeper waters of Matta- 
poisett River. 

Among the early attempts of the town at improvement 
was the securing of authority from the legislature to pro- 
vide a public common, and in 1874 the town voted to 
accept the act. Public sentiment, however, turned against 
the project and the work was undone. 

The subject of laying out and discontinuing roads oc- 
cupied much of the town's time and of its records, which 
from 1857 to 1880 show: The discontinuance in 1858 of 
the " Old town road leading eastward from North Street 
near the house of James LeBaron;" the widening and 
straightening in 1861 of the highway from the "house 
of John Bowlin, now of George Fox," to Cedar Swamp 
Brook, "provided Solomon E. Bolles shall fill the 
slough of said road with stone and give the gravel from 
his barn cellar which he contemplates making and also 
one week's work on said road;" in 1868 the acceptance 
of Pearl Street, north of Church Street, "as now 
opened;" in 1874 the acceptance of the road known 
as "Freeman Street," leading by the houses of Charles 



330 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Smith and James H. Tinkham; also that year the 
acceptance of a way from Main Street to Barnard's 
Island as a private way; the next year the action of the 
County Commissioners in widening and straightening 
North Street "from highwater mark northerly to the 
Rochester line," and that of the town in accepting the road 
known as Foster Street leading from Macy Bowman's to 
N. C. Ransom's. In 1876 the County Commissioners 
relocating, widening, and straightening Main Street, " from 
a point on Cannonville Hill, at the former residence of 
Prince A. Snow, to the Barstow Schoolhouse ; " also that 
same year, the acceptance of Mechanic Street, " from 
Church Street to Sturtevant Street," as laid out; and of 
Oakland Street, "as laid out;" in 1877 the County Com- 
missioners' altering of the highway between the house 
of J. L. Stackpole and the store of P. G. Munro; and in 
1879 the acceptance of the report of the Selectmen widen- 
ing and straightening the road from the house of Isaac D. 
Tinkham to the town line of Acushnet. In general, the 
streets have kept their original names, but "Willis" and 
" Jerusalem " streets are names of the past. 

Practically the whole water front of Mattapoisett 
Village was a public common until after the close of the 
ship-building days, so that it was not until 1884 that the 
town, realizing the need of access to the harbor, secured 
the "Leonard Hammond ship-yard lot," the "Durfee 
Beach lot" in 1886, and still later the wharf property of 
the Mattapoisett Wharf Company. 

Another piece of land devoted to quite a different pur- 
pose came into the possession of the town in 1889, when 
Lemuel LeBaron, Weston Howland, and Wm. B. Nelson, 
the Precinct Committee of the First Precinct in Matta- 



Mattapoisett the Town 331 

poisett, conveyed to the town the interest of the Precinct 
in "the Barlow Burying place, and being the same land 
conveyed to said Precinct and to the inhabitants thereof, 
by Elihu Sherman, by deed dated June 8, 1789." 

The first steam train passed through the town on the 
4th of July, 1854. It consisted of an engine and a number 
of flat cars which were trimmed with birches, and a free 
ride to Fairhaven was provided for all. Later years have 
brought the daily "Dude" train, for the accommodation 
of summer residents, and a high-grade electric street car 
service. 

As early as 1876 the town began to experiment on 
watering its streets, and that year is found a payment to 
the Mattapoisett Wharf Company for "water from their 
dock." 

The original mode of keeping the ways in repair by a 
labor tax was soon changed to making money appropria- 
tions which were expended from time to time by different 
officials as the town changed its systems ; the price allowed 
for labor on the highways advancing from ten cents to 
twelve and a half cents an hour in 1859, and it was voted 
that " all who pay their highway tax before the 4th of July, 
either in money or labor have a discount of 20 per cent." 
The first substantial advance was made when the first mac- 
adam road was built in 1893 by William L. Hubbard, 
Ephraim A. Dexter, and Joseph R. Jenney, Road Com- 
missioners, under the supervision of Captain Jenney. A 
piece, 4900 feet long, was built at a cost of $1400, and at- 
tracted considerable attention outside the town. It lasted 
for many years and led to the adoption of this method of 
road construction. There are at the present time four- 
teen or fifteen miles of stone road in the town, more is 



332 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

built each year, and its shore and woodland drives cannot 
be surpassed. 

Joseph E. Smith was the first and only " Pound Keeper" 
elected by the town, and in 1882 the town pound was con- 
veyed to him for the sum of $40. The next year $10 of 
this amount was refunded to him, presumably because the 
pound was missed less than was expected. The pound 
stood on the south side of the Fairhaven Road in the north- 
east corner of the house lot now owned by Nathan Smith. 

The conscientious service of its officers has been fre- 
quently recognized by the town. 

In 1874 the town passed a vote of thanks to Thomas 
Nelson, Town Clerk, for his long and faithful services. 
Ten years later a similar vote was given Capt. Franklin 
Cross, who had served twenty-one years as a Selectman. 
Henry A. Shurtleff, Town Clerk, and Wilson Barstow, 
Selectman for twenty-seven years, were honored in a 
similar manner in 1891; and in 1894 resolutions were 
adopted on the death of Noah Hammond, Selectman for 
twenty-one years, setting forth the town's obligations to 
him. 

While perhaps not unusual in Massachusetts, the Puri- 
tan strain of ancestry of the early settlers of Mattapoisett 
is shown by many given names appearing on the town's 
records, such as " Fear, Content, Justice, Hope, Wealthy, 
Thankful, Hope, Prudence, Patience, Charity, Mercy, 
Faith, Experience, Desire, Remember, Ransom, Re- 
solved." 

Even to the present time, the whole history of Matta- 
poisett may be read in the annals of "whaling." Even 
now it is rare to find on her streets a man of fifty years 
who has not shipped for at least one "cruise," and "Cap- 



Mattapoisett the Town 333 

ens " are as common as were ever " Kurnels " in the South, 
after war time. 

Most of the well-to-do families owe their prosperity 
directly to "oil" and "bone;" and curiosities from the 
sea, or relics from foreign lands the world over, are treas- 
ured in every household. 

It will be many a year before the influences born of 
arduous toil and exciting adventure in every sea shall 
cease to bear fruit. 

Some day, as the wheel of time slowly turns, again the 
noise and strife of busy commercial enterprises may fill 
the streets and throng the wharves; till then, as one of her 
sons has written: 

"The wanderer o'er the troubled sea of life, 
Come safe to port here after all the strife, 
May think himself, aye, more than three times blest, 
At harbor in this quiet place of rest" 

List of Town Officers 

The following persons have served the town as indicated : 

Selectmen, Assessors and Overseers of the Poor from 1857 to 1907: 

Amittai B. Hammond, 1857-61, Joseph L. Cole, 1884-1900. 

inclusive. Reuben F. Holmes, 1888. 

Joseph E. Smith, 1857-62. Ephraim A. Dexter, 1888. 

Jarvis Ellis, 1857-61. Jonathan H. Holmes, 1891-93. 

Nathan H. Barstow, 1862. Allen D. Hammond, 1894-95. 

Thomas P. Hammond, 1862. James F. Hammond, 1894-96. 

Josiah Holmes, Jr., 1863-69. Thomas D. Dexter, 1895-97. 

Franklin Cross, 1863-83. Nathan S. Mendell, 1897-1902. 
Wilson Barstow, 1863-68, 1870- Abner Harlow, 1899-1901. 

90. Lester W. Jenney, 1901— 

Isaac Hiller, 1868. Horace F. Field, 1902— 

Bruce F. Shaw, 1869-73. Isaiah P. Atsatt, 1903-04. 

Noah Hammond, 1874-94. Everett C. Stetson, 1905— 



334 



Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 



Samuel Sturtevant, Jr., 1857-60, 

inclusive. 
Benjamin W. Shearman, 1860-66. 
Henry Taylor, 1867-68. 
A. S. LeBaron, 1869. 



Treasurers and Collectors, 1857-1907 

Isaiah P. Atsatt, 1870-82. 
Reuben F. Holmes, 1883-87. 
Benjamin L. Boodry, 1888. 
Freeman C. Keene, 1888-99. 
Elwood B. Hiller, 1900— 



Town Clerks, 1857-1907 



Thomas Nelson, 1857-74. 
Lemuel LeB. Holmes, 1874-76. 
Reuben F. Holmes, 1876. 
Henry A. Shurtleff, 1876-91. 



William B. Nelson, 1891-93. 
George H. Dexter, 1893-1905. 
William N. Johnson, 1905— 



School Committee, 1857-1907 



Josiah Holmes, Jr., 1857-61, 

1866-69. 
Weston Howland, 1857-60, 1872- 

76. 
Wm. E. Sparrow, 1857-59, 1867- 

72. 
Woodbridge R. Howes, 1859-61. 
Wilson Barstow, 1860-66. 
Noah Shearman, 1861-62, 1870- 

71. 
Henry Barstow, 1861-65, 1870-71. 
Thos. Nelson, 1862-67. 
Noah C. Sturtevant, 1865-68. 
Jonathan H. Holmes, 1868-70. 
Herbert Shurtleff, 1869-70. 
William Weaver, 1871-74. 
Jarvis Ellis, 1871-74. 
Joshua L. Macomber, 1872-78, 

1879-82, 1887-96. 
Joseph L. Cole, 1872-75, 1876- 86. 
Geo. Purrington, Jr., 1874-76. 



William E. Sparrow, Jr., 1875- 76, 

1885-87. 
Nancy M. Caswell, 1876-79. 
William B. Nelson, 1878-81. 
Edward B. Hiller, 1882-85. 
Mary F. Dexter, 1882-87. 
Alonzo W. Westgate, 1886-87. 
Charles Bryant, 1887-90. 
David H. Cannon, 1887-92, 1894- 

97. 
Pliny A. Allen, 1890-91. 
Charles H. Johnson, 1891-94. 
Joseph L. Meigs, 1892-97. 
Robert L. Dexter, 1896-97. 
Charles H. Tinkham, 1897-1900. 
Clara L. Hammond, 1897-98. 
Lemuel LeBaron Dexter, 1897 — 
Elizabeth E. Shaw, 1898. 
Heman G. Holmes, 1898— 
James S. Burbank, 1900-03. 
Mary W. Wood, 1903- 



Among members of the professions from Mattapoisett 
since its incorporation are: 

Laimjers. — John Eddy, John W. Hammond, Nahum 



Mattapoisett the Town 335 

Leonard, Jr., Lemuel LeBaron Holmes, Thomas W. 
Hammond, Hollen M. Barstow, Alvah E. Snow, Frank 
M. Sparrow, Lester W. Jenney, J. E. Norton Shaw, 
Lemuel LeBaron Dexter, and Jonathan H. Holmes. 

Doctors. — William E. Sparrow, William W. Sweat, 
Dr. Bartlett, Dr. Bass, Woodbridge R. Howes, Charles 
E. Bolles (D.D.S.), Roland Hammond, Herbert Shurtleff, 
Thomas W. Hammond, David H. Cannon, Clarence L. 
Howes, John C. Shaw, Henry A. Shurtleff, William F. 
Holmes, 

Ministers. — Pliny A. Allen, Jr. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MATTAPOISETT OF THE PRESENT 

DURING the fifty years of independent town history 
there have been two eras. Mattapoisett was once 
a busy seaport; it is now a summer resort. 

After the ship-yards were abandoned, and the sound 
of the hammers — which yet lingers with such charm in 
the memories of the older people — was stilled, a kind of 
decadence set in. It was no longer the inevitable thing 
for the young men to make their "first voyage;" and, if 
good sailors, to continue following the sea, or if not, to 
settle down at ship-building or farming. Instead, they 
went West, or to the large cities, and so established their 
homes where they could find employment. The young 
women, having no longer their traditional amusement of 
watching for ships to come in, and of writing six months' 
news to absent sailor boys, caught the new spirit of inde- 
pendence and also went away to seek their fortunes. The 
older people and the easy-going remained, and the times 
were very dull indeed. One finds in a town report of the 
period a pessimistic page on which Mattapoisett is con- 
trasted most unfavorably with "brisk and flourishing in- 
terior towns," and a prayer is offered that "some busi- 
ness may be instituted in which we can all participate." 
An old sea captain, whom most can yet remember, 
used to sum up the situation with less elegance, and 



Mattapoisett of the Present 337 

say with a thump of his cane: "The town is getting a 
cant." 

The ministers could no longer pray with the old-time 
weekly fervor for " those that go down to the sea in ships, 
that do business in the great waters," nor could the vil- 
lagers throng the wharves on a summer's evening to watch 
a vessel slide off the ways. Long Wharf Middle 
Wharf and Short Wharf no more were covered with great 
casks of oil and the piled-up paraphernalia of whaling 
enterprise. Ned's Point light house still threw its nightly 
beam across the harbor, but no whaleman, returning from 
an Arctic voyage, had a lookout aloft, scanning anxiously 
the distance to catch the first gleam of its welcoming light. 
No merchant ships were eagerly waited by sailors' wives 
in Mattapoisett, and new stones were rarely set up in the 
village burying-grounds to the memory of sons or hus- 
bands lost at sea. The shipping in the harbor was re- 
duced to a few schooners in the fall that brought, perhaps, 
a cargo of coal; and departed, laden with box-boards, for 
Philadelphia or some other home port. 

But as the village waited, and the years passed by, a 
time came when the popularity of summer seaside homes 
was established among the wealthy people of the cities, 
and the south shore of Massachusetts began to be "dis- 
covered." Mattapoisett was too charming in location 
and natural beauty to be passed unnoticed. The first 
to perceive its possibilities, and to make for themselves a 
place of summer rest, were Mr. and Mrs. George M. 
Barnard, of Boston, who came in the fall of 1869, and soon 
bought up much of the shore and inland property, and 
continued as summer residents of Mattapoisett as long 
as they lived. Their home, the old Benjamin Barstow 



338 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

house, now owned by their granddaughter, Miss Mary W. 
Barnard, has an unbroken exposure to the sea, a beautiful 
view of the harbor, and has — although much enlarged — 
been kept in its simple old-style character, with the pic- 
turesque weather-beaten trees around it. 

The Barnards were soon followed by other families, 
who built new cottages or made over old houses all along 
the shore, many of whom have continued to come summer 
after summer, growing more and more attached with 
the associations of years. Among these early summer 
visitors were Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and his son, Mr. 
Justice O. W. Holmes, Jr. The latter owned and oc- 
cupied for many seasons — but has lately sold it — the 
old Cowen place on the eastern shore of the town just 
back of the " Cedars, " — a rocky elevation of the beach 
crowned with those hardy trees. Hon. George O. Shat- 
tuck built on the Edwards' land next the lighthouse, 
which place is now the summer home of Hon. Charles S. 
Hamlin. Another Boston lawyer, J. Lewis Stackpole, 
converted the Hall blacksmith shop, west of the "com- 
pany ship-yard," into a summer home on the sea sands, 
swept always by the sea winds. Thomas Parsons, of 
Boston, whose place just east of the village includes in 
its former bounds the lot of St. Philip's Episco- 
pal Church; and Francis E. Bacon, the Boston merchant, 
whose charming house and garden are in " Cannonville," 
were among the earlier summer residents, and their families 
are to-day still welcomed back with each return of the 
vacation season. So also is the family of Edward Atkin- 
son, the scholar and social economist, who, until his death, 
came regularly to his quiet home, which nestles in the 
woods with an outlook toward the sea. On the grounds 



Mattapoisett of the Present 339 

is the big boulder, — "the Great Rock," — around which 
generations of Mattapoisett children have picnicked and 
played, and have wished it could tell them of its long-ago 
journey in the ice age, and of when and how it was broken 
in two. 

Some were drawn back to Mattapoisett by family ties. 
Mrs. Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard was often a visitor in 
her native town, and Rogers L. Barstow, the Boston 
banker, and Mrs. Seavey, Mrs. Battelle, and Miss Munroe, 
the granddaughters of old "Squire Willis, ..." have many 
interests and associations with the past, to attach them to 
their summer homes. William T. Faunce, the Boston 
shoe man, son of the kindly remembered old Baptist 
minister, has enlarged and improved his old homestead; 
and James T. Jones has returned to his native town and 
converted the William LeBaron place into a summer 
residence. Within recent years rows of smaller cottages 
have been built along Pico and Crescent beaches, and 
at various points on the Necks, either for personal occu- 
pancy or for rental, and for these the demand increases. 

Of course the chief attraction to visitors, and the par- 
ticular pride of the inhabitants, is the harbor. The land 
seems to stretch out long, guarding arms on either side. 
On one is Ned's Point, with the lighthouse, and on the 
other is the Neck, named long ago by the Indians, "An- 
tassawamuck Neck." This harbor is always beautiful 
under sunny or cloudy skies, or by moonlight; and the 
fresh southwest breeze tempers the hottest midsummer day. 
The opportunities for boating, fishing and bathing are 
good, and the public bathing beach, so wisely acquired 
by the town some years ago, is more and more used, both 
by the village people and by the transient visitors. Of 



340 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

these latter there are many each summer, two 
hotels are often crowded, and more would doubtless come 
if accommodation were more easily obtained. 

Around the town are many beautiful drives. The 
macadam roads run not only along the shore, but stretch 
back into the fragrant pines which abound in all the Old 
Rochester territory. One can take visitors first down 
the Neck road for the pretty view of the village and the 
curving line of shore stretching to the lighthouse, with 
the gay-colored roofs piled high on " Cannonville Hill," 
and beyond the light "Strawberry" and "Angelica," 
stretching out toward the Falmouth shore. On the west 
neck there is the winding, woodsy, Brandt Island road 
ending over across the bridge on the island itself. An- 
other circuit back from the water, to the northern limit 
of the town, leads through alternate pieces of pine wood- 
land and cultivated farms, "around Wolf Island." The 
island is not evident, but it is there, formed by the Matta- 
poisett River dividing and uniting again, and between 
two little narrow bridges the road crosses the lower corner 
of it. There is still less evidence of the "wolf," which, 
according to one tradition, roamed there once. Accord- 
ing to another it was only a man named Wolfe from whom 
the place was called. 

To those who delight to explore old roads and cart paths 
leading into the woods, this part of the town is very attrac- 
tive, especially when the laurel is in bloom. The great 
fluffy masses of white flowers seem to catch all the sun- 
beams, and to lighten up the dim vistas of the shady 
paths. The swamp apple blossoms, which have about 
the same season, are less beautiful, but the air is made 
sweet by their fragrance. If one is interested in geological 



Mattapoisett of the Present 341 

curiosities there is in this neighborhood the impression in 
the stone called the " Devil's foot," and also the " Dumpling 
Rock," which a man can move with one hand, but which 
many stout young men together have vainly tried to roll 
off its rocky base. 

For longer drives there is the fifteen-mile circuit through 
Marion and Rochester, or the still longer courses around 
the Lakeville ponds, or around Long Plain and Fair- 
haven. Skirting the bay the macadam is unbroken from 
New Bedford to Sandwich and is a trunk route for auto- 
mobiles. By trolley and steam train or boat, Plymouth 
and the Cape, Martha's Vineyard and even Newport, and 
all the resorts of Narragansett Bay, are within easy reach 
for single-day excursions. If one prefers to seek solitude, 
there are attractive old woods roads leading by the " Boat 
Rock," or to Solomon's, and even through to the neighbor- 
ing towns, upon which one can tramp for miles without 
view of any dwelling. 

The Mattapoisett River flows along, in the inconsequent 
way of rivers, from Snippituit to the sea. It is beautiful 
when seen from the highway, but still more beautiful in 
the dark places where the trees and tangled vines inter- 
lace overhead, and the cardinal flowers in August make 
vivid spots of color all along the banks. It was the 
Indians' course to the seashore, and if their shades any- 
where revisit the glimpses of the moon it must be beside 
this stream. One wonders if they seek the nearly vanished 
spring where, by tradition, on their return from the shore, 
they made the first clambakes, naming the spot the 
"place of rest," and thus giving a name for the river and 
the town. Where the river begins to widen out is the 
romantic spot known as "Lovers' Bridge," a rustic 



342 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

log foot-way has long existed across the stream, 
and according to the legend it was the trysting place for 
an Indian maiden and her lover from the North who came 
down the river in his canoe to meet her. From the bridge 
winding paths lead to open fields, from which more shady 
lanes can be followed further in various directions to the 
highways. One path, leading through thickets of sweet 
briar roses, follows the course of the river for some dis- 
tance. 

Of the public buildings none has more interesting 
associations than the old "Barstow High School," once 
the Congregational meeting-house, and later the Academy. 
Its churchly architecture made it rather a unique school- 
house, and gave it a certain dignity and sanctity. It had 
been separated into two stories, and the upper one in- 
cluded a small hall used as a lodge-room by the Sons of 
Temperance. This room was always securely locked 
and was as interesting and mysterious as Bluebeard's 
chamber to the children ; but the rest of the building they 
could generally overrun. At times they were even allowed 
to climb the dusty, creaking stairs to the belfry steeple 
and to eat their lunches there on a summer's day, with the 
village all below and the distant sparkling waves melting 
away into the blue sky at the horizon line, — which line 
was plainly circular, therefore the world must be round as 
the geography said. Now that the new and spacious 
school building on Church Street has been given by Mr. 
H. H. Rogers, the former Barstow schoolhouse has be- 
come the Grange Hall. The old Grammar schoolhouse, 
considerably more than a hundred years old, which stood 
formerly on the corner of Church and Pearl streets, has 
been purchased for the Universalist society and fitted up 



Mattapoisett of the Present 343 

for a church home. It now stands on the south side of 
Church Street, facing the new brick schoolhouse, — an 
interesting example of the contrasts of time. The town 
hall now occupies the corner where once stood Ezra 
Brownell's house and the engine house. This last named 
building had a career of varied usefulness as workshop, 
store, and "Little Belt" meeting-house, and is now a 
dwelling on Baptist Street. On Barstow Street is the 
new Public Library and the Soldiers' Monument, the gift 
of George Purrington, Jr., to the town. 

A summer visitor once said that he could not imagine 
Mattapoisett in the winter. To think of it without the 
life and color, the yachts in the harbor, the summer ver- 
dure, and the summer girls, was quite impossible. Like 
the old enchanted city, Germelshausen, which had one 
day in a hundred years and then sank under the bogs and 
the marshes, it seemed to him that Mattapoisett must 
vanish from one season to another. Occasionally on a 
winter's evening the streets may appear so utterly deserted 
that one might almost imagine that to be the case. But 
the enchanted sleep effect is only out of doors; within, 
one finds warmth and cheer; and his meeting, club, 
society, or class, very much awake and alive, and ready 
to settle all questions temporal and spiritual. For the 
social activities of the town are largely in the line of 
societies. Of course the people entertain each other 
more or less, but weekly, fortnightly, and monthly 
meetings abound. There are the numerous auxiliary 
societies of the churches, the Lodge of the Sons of Tem- 
perance, and the W. C. T. U.; the Grange, the Memorial 
Association, — a social organization mostly of Grand 
Army men and their families; dancing classes, whist 



344 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

clubs, reading circles, and study classes to suit all tastes. 
As a needed change one man recently proposed to organ- 
ize a "home rest" club, each member pledging himself 
to spend one evening a week at his own fireside, but that 
has not yet been organized. 

The Village Improvement Association was started in 
1904, mainly through the efforts and influence of Mr. and 
Mrs. Charles S. Hamlin. Since its inception, Mrs. Hamlin 
has continued its president, and under her leadership 
there has been enthusiastic support from every one. 
Many improvements have been made, materially bene- 
fiting and beautifying the town, and the society will in- 
crease in usefulness in the future. Could the old sea 
captain, previously quoted, return to us, and should he 
discern any deviation from the perpendicular now, he 
would but need to point it out to the Improvement 
Association to have it instantly taken in hand and 
righted up. 

A year ago some benevolent citizens organized a so- 
ciety to maintain a summer home for convalescing or 
tired out people who need rest and change, but cannot 
afford the usual rates of board at the seashore. The 
successful first year of this home seems to justify a con- 
tinuance of the work. 

For the last twenty years Mattapoisett has increased 
steadily in population and in valuation. In supplying the 
needs of the vacation spenders many hands find employ- 
ment in varied ways. The trolley has placed the village 
within the suburban radius from New Bedford, and the 
lately established steamship line to that port from the 
Western Islands has tended to stimulate the immigra- 
tion of the Portuguese into the villages and farms of all 



Mattapoisett of the Present 345 

the Old Rochester territory, and one wonders what 
changes their influence will make in the future upon 
this town which has always followed the old New Eng- 
land ideals. 

So Mattapoisett sits to-day on her beautiful open harbor; 
the waters of Buzzards Bay roll in as blue as ever; 
the alewives still go up the river each April; there is 
still good fishing in the bay and shell fish on the shore. 
The catboats ride at their moorings around the buoy, 
or their sails glisten in the sun far out toward the Fal- 
mouth shore. The old family names are on the narrow 
elm-shaded streets, and many of the ancient houses look 
out upon them still. The town is full of pleasure-seekers 
who play tennis or golf, drive, sail, or fish, or dance at 
the Casino; but there is always the sense of rest and 
quiet, the salt air full of ozone, the fragrant breath 
of the pines, and the respite from city noise and 
dust. 

And all along the shore from Aucoot Cove to the 
Fairhaven line, each year sees new homes built for those 
who seek their rest in close touch with nature and old 
ocean. Vacation and holiday are a part of the world's 
true needs, and in lending its own quiet charms to these 
forms of human demand, this seaside village has entered 
into a new and worthy role, more harmonious, per- 
haps, than were the activities of the past, with the mus- 
ical name that it carries, — Mattapoisett, — the place of 
rest. 

We can look with hope into the future for the increas- 
ing prosperity and attractiveness of the town, and we 
know that those who will be in our places then will linger 



346 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

with the same interest over our present as we do over the 
past which in this volume has been reviewed, for 

"The present time is like a nearer sail, 

Fretted and torn and soiled by stormy tears; 
Anchored far out beyond recalling hail, 

All sails look white across the sea of years." 



The Bay Path's End 347 

THE BAY PATH'S END 

The snake-like trail, o'er hill, through dale, 

Winds to a mound beside the sea 
O'er which the white-winged Gods shall sail 

From their far land of mystery. 

Here clustered wigwams thinly smoked 

'Mid fields of undulating maize; 
And here the arrow-maker chipped, 

In those last neolithic days, 
The flakes of milk-white quartz to shape 

Keen-edged, or barbed, for chase or fight, — 
To stain with Narragansett blood, 

Or stop the wild-goose in its flight. 
Here Wampanoag wampum strung, 

Carved from the blue-eyed quahog shell, 
Or framed the birch-bark's graceful curves 

To cleave the broad Atlantic swell. 
The warrior bent the tough oak bow 

With tight-stretched vibrant deerskin string, 
Or decked the scalp-lock with the plumes 

Far-borrowed from the eagle's wing. 
With harsh-hued war-paint on the face, 

Dug from the shore-side beds of clay, 
A wild, fierce silhouette he made 

Upon the headlands of the Bay. 
Here Massasoit saw unmoved 

The Pale-face paddle to his shore; 
Here met the Little Captain bold, 

And smoked the peace-pipe o'er and o'er. 
Here, where still from the white sand floor 

The crystal waters bubbling burst, 
The hunted Philip knelt one day 

Within the wood to quench his thirst. 

To-day no signal rends the ear 

In fish-hawk's cry or night-owl's screech; 

The Red-man's spirit stalks unseen 
In moonlight eves beside the beach. 



348 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Long sleep to warrior and long dreams, 

A Happy Hunting in the West, 
A swift canoe o'er pleasant streams, 

And here a peaceful Place of Rest. 

Charles Elmer Jenney. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE RECORDS 



ROCHESTER SOLDIERS AND SAILORS 
IN EARLY WARS 

These lists are necessarily imperfect. They have been compiled by 
Mrs. James L. Hammond from various sources, such as assessors' 
tables, etc., and especially from lists made by Miss Mary H. Leonard 
and others from the rolls in the State archives. Future research will 
undoubtedly add many names. The list for the Revolutionary War 
has been compared with the official record as far as that has been pub- 
lished, and is therefore correct for the names given. 

FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 

1748 

In Col. Doty's Regiment 

Joseph Dexter 

1755-6 
In Col. Doty's Regiment 
Nath. Holmes Ab'm Ashley 

Constant Dexter John Foster 

William Comes Daniel Dexter 

1756 
Joshua Hammond 



1760 



Barnabas Hammond 
Jeduthan Hammond 
Paul Sears 
William Griffith 
Joseph Edwards 
Joseph Bumpass 



John Coltran (?) 
Avery Parker 
Stephen Bennett 
David Perry 
Nathan Bassett 
William (Negro) 



350 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

1762 
Officers in First Plymouth Regiment 
Capt. Nathaniel Ruggles Ensign George King 

Lieut. John Winslow 



Rochester men, Col. Doty's Regiment, in hospital at Crown Point 

Abm. Ashley Nathaniel Holmes 

Constant Dexter C Ashley 

Delano 

Joseph Doty Dead 

Doty Constant Dexter 

Zenas Delano Joseph Robinson 
Joshua Hammond 

Muster Rolls, Capt. Bradford's Company under Col. Tho. Doty, 
1758-60. 



Dominicus Hovey 
Jonathan Crapo 
Lot Cowen(?) 
Barnabas Freeman 
John Brigs 
Amasa White 
Ishmael Trip 
Isaac Job 
David Sers 
Joseph Barlow 



Micah Griffin 
Silas Burgis 
Elihugh Eldridge 
Joseph Snow 
Joseph Moss 
Aquilla Benson 
Samuel Brigs 



Service in Canada 

Paul Sears 
Jabez Dexter 
Ebenezer Dexter 
Charles Sturtevant 
John Mags 
Isaac Handy 
William Southworth 
Robert Clarke 
Nehemiah Bosworth, Jr. 



Service in Canada 

Col. Doty's Regiment, 1758-60 

Samuel Hastings 
Luke Tobey 
Pollypus Hammond 
Edward Doty 
Samuel Steward 
Earl Clap 

Micah Sprague, Recruiting Officer 



Old Rochester Soldiers and Sailors 351 

Recruits from Rochester 1760 

Elhanan Cowing ( ?) Gideon Bennet 

Stephen Bassett Nathan Bassett 

David Perry William (Negro) 

Samuel Burgis James Wing 
Nathaniel Besse 



In Bradford's Company, Doty's Regiment, were the following Ro- 
chester men: 

Benjamin Hovey Constant Southward 

Joseph Barlow Thomas Southard 

John Meigs Josiah Freeman 

Jacob Allen (?) John Meigs 

Luther Arnold Joseph Barlow 

Eph'm Doty Clark Foster 

Asa Robinson Joseph Barlow 
Marcus (?) Robinson 

In Capt. Pratt's Company 

Thomas Combs Elna Barlow 

Zebulon Haskel Elnathan Combs 

Solomon Doty Samuel Joy 

John Bennett Gideon Cobb (?) 

Ebenezer Barrows Galens Sparrow 
John Barlow 

Muster Roll of Capt. Bartlett's (Plymouth) Company 

Stafford Hammond Zibedy (?) Delano 

Joseph Look Nath. Winslow 

William Doty Joseph Dexter 

E Doty Constant Southward 

Joseph Bessy Gamaliel Arnold 

From Pay Roll, Abel Keen's Company 
Solomon Young 

In Stephen Holmes' Company 
Nathan Forster 



352 



Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 



Nathan Foster 



In Abel Keen's Company 

Joshua Morse 



REVOLUTIONARY WAR 

In the official printed record of service, "Massachusetts Soldiers and 
Sailors of the Revolutionary War," many of the following names appear 
several times under various spellings, which variations are there noted 
under the commonly accepted form of each name. 



Joshua Allen 

William Annible 

Charles Anthony 

Kennedy (also given Canada) 

Asher 
Abiel Atwood 
Abner Baker 
Joseph Bailey 
Stephen Barden 
Amittai Barlow 
Ebenezer Barlow 
Joseph Barlow 
Obed Barlow 
William Barlow 
Joseph Bassett 
Melatiah Basset 
Newcomb Bassett 
Rufus Bassett 
Silas Bassett 
Stephen Basset 
Thomas Bassett 
Willam Basset, Jr. 
David Bates 
Elijah Bates 
Moses Bates 
Sylvester Bates 

Beats 

Aquilla Benson 
John Benson 
Nathaniel Bessey 
Seth Blackwill 
Charles Blankinship 



George Blankinship 
William Blankinship 
Lot Bly 
William Bly 
Amos Boals 
Asa Boles 
Ebenezer Bowles 
Hosea Bolles 
Joshua Boalls 
Asa Bomp 
Nehemiah Bosworth 
John Bozworth 
John Bozozard 
Arnold Briggs 
Elihu Briggs 
Elisha Briggs 
Elisha Briggs 
Elisha Briggs, Jr. 
Isaac Briggs 
John Briggs 
John Briggs, Jr. 
Joseph Brigs 
Nathan Briggs 
Nathaniel Briggs 
Samuel Briggs 
Seth Briggs 
James Brown 
Charles Budget 
Stephen Burdin 
Bangs Burgess 
Ebenezer Burges 
Ichabod Burgess 



Old Rochester Soldiers and Sailors 



353 



John Burggs 
Samuel Burges 
William Cammel 
Ebenezer Cannon 
Lemuel Casvel 
John Caswall 
Elijah Caswell, Jr. 
Thomas Caswell 
John Chilson 
Charles Church 
Jonathan Church 
Thomas Church 
Silvanus Churchil 
Thomas Churchill 
Benjamin Clapp 
Earl Clap 
Ichabod Clap 
Increase Clap 
Kenelm (?) Clap 
Seth Clap 
Barnabas Clark 
Ebenezer Clark 
George Clark 
John Clark 
John Clark, 3rd. 
Jonathan Clark 
Joseph Clark 
Joshua Clark 
Josiah Clark 
Melatiah Clark 
Nathaniel Clark 
Roger Clark 
Weston Clark 
William Clark 
Elemuel Clarke 
Caleb Combs 
Ebenezer Cornell 
Jabez Cottle 
William Cowen 
Asahel Cowing 
William Cowing 
Elnathan Crapo 



Jeremiah Crapo 
William Crapo 
Daniel Croxford 
Nathaniel Cushing 
Manuel Dagget 
John Daley 
Benjamin Davis 
Joseph Davis 
Harper Delino 
Jabez Dileno 
Nathan Delano 
Benjamin Dexter 
Caleb Dexter 
Constant Dexter 
David Dexter 
Ephraim Dexter 
Isaiah Dexter 
Jabez Dexter 
Joshua Dextor 
Noah Dexter 
Silas Dexter 
Thomas Dexter 
Emanuel Doggett 
Barnabas Doty 
John Doty 
Thomas Doty 
David Edwards 
Jonathan Edwards 
Samuel Eldred 
Ebenezer Ellis 
George Ellis 
Joel Ellis 
Joshua Ellis 
Nathan Ellis 
Rowel Foot 
Ebenezer Foster 
Tilly Foster 
Alden Freeman 
John Gallt 
Dodavah Garland 
Jonathan Garland 
Thomas Gould 



354 



Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 



John Gray 

Samuel Green 

Benjamin Gurney 

George Gurney 

Levi Gurney 

Josiah Haket 

Seth Hall 

Reuben Hamlin 

John Hammett 

Anthony Hammond 

Barzillai Hammond 

Benjamin Hammond 

Daniel Hammond 

Ebenezer Hammond 

Edward Hammond 

Elijah Hammond 

Elnathan Hammond 

George Hammond 

Gideon Hammond 

Gideon Hammond, 2nd. 

Hunne'l (Hunnewell) Hammond 

James Hamon 

John Hammond 

John Hammond 

John Hammond 

Joseph Hammond 

Josiah Hammond 

Nathaniel Hammond 

Noah Hammond 

Phineas Hammond 

Polypus Hammond 

Seth Hammond 

Shubael Hammond 

Stafford Hammond 

Stephen Hammond 

Edward Handy 

Elisha Handy 

James Handy 

Jonathan Handy 

Silas Handy 

Zaccheus Handy, Jr. 

Aaron Harlow 



Barnabas Haskel 
David Haskell 
Elias Haskel 
Elnathan Haskell 
Elnathan Haskell, Jr. 
James Haskell 
Job Haskell 
Joseph Haskel 
Joseph Haskell, 2nd 
Micah Haskel 
Nat Haskel 
Timothy Haskel 
Jonathan Haskell 
Moses Haskell 
Nathan Haskell 
Zebulon Haskell 
Benjamin Haskins 
John Haskins 
Nathaniel Haskins 
Thomas Haskins 
Benjamin Hatch 
Jonah Hatch 
Joseph Hatch 
Jonathan Hatch 
Sylvanus Hatch 
Ichabod Hartheway 
Savory Hathaway 
Seth Hathaway 
Simon Hathaway 
Solomon Hayward 
John Hazeltine 
John Hiller 
Timothy Hiller 
Israel Holmes 
William Hopper 
Abel House 
Ezra Hovey 
Israel Hovey 
Solomon Howard 
James Howland 
Nathan Jenne, Jr. 
Samuel (?) Jenne 



Old Rochester Soldiers and Sailors 



S55 



John Keen 
Consider King 
Ebenezer King 
Ichabod King 
Jonathan King 
Nathaniel King 
Lemuel LeBaron 
Barzilla Livingston 
Sherman Lincoln 
Adam Look 
Samuel Look 
Francis Luce 
Samuel Lombard 
Caleb Lumber 
Josiah Lumbard 
William Maxwell 
John Meiggs 
Church Mendall 
Daniel Mendall 
Samuel Mendall 
Seth Mendall 
John Millard 
Rev. Jona. Moore 
Ebenezer Morse 
John Morse 
Benjamin Morton 
John Muxam 
Barzillai Nickerson 
William Nicoll 
Robert Noulton 
Ezekiel Nye 
Ichabod Nye 
Nathan Nye 
William Nye 
John Oliver 
Russell Oliver 
John Omey 
Philip Omey 
William Paddy 
Ephraim Painee 
Abner Pane 
Ebenezer Parker 



Joseph Parker 
Thomas Parlow 
Cuff Perry 
James Perry 
William Poddy 
Dr. John Pitcher 
Theophilus Pitcher 
Ebenezer Pope 
Elnathan Pope 
Isaac Pope 
Seth Pope 
Caleb Randall 
Constant Randall 
David Randal 
Elisha Randel 
Hathaway Randol 
Jethro Randel 
John Randall 
Lemuel Randel 
Micah Randall 
Moses Randall 
Nehemiah Randel 
Seth Randel 
William Randall 
Christopher Ricks 
Nathaniel Rider 
Robert Rider 
Roland Rider 
Israel Roach 
Prince Rodman 
Elisha Ruggles 
Nathaniel Ruggles 
Timothy Ruggles 
Jeffrey Sachamus 
Samuel Samson 
Nathan Savery 
Allen Sears 
David Sears 
Judah Sears 
Nathan Sears 
Nathaniel Sears 
Silas Sears 



356 



Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 



Jeffrey (also given Jephthah) 

Sechamin 
Christopher (also given Crispan) 

Shaw 
Isaiah Shaw 
Isaac Sherman 
William Shermand 
John Short 
Joshua Shermon 
Godfrey Shreve 
John Simmons 
Nathaniel (also given Nathan) 

Smith 
Richard Smith 
William Smith 
Borman Snow 
David Snow 
Ebenezer Snow 
Edmund Snow 
Isaac Snow 
Ivory Snow 
James Snow 
Mark Snow 
Nicholas Snow 
Paul Snow 
Richard Snow 



Samuel Snow 
Thomas Snow 
Andrew Sothworth 
Daniel Southward 
David Southworth 
John Southworth 
Stephen Southworth 
Joshua Spooner 
Samuel Sprague 
John Stephens 
Nye Stephenson 
John Stevens 
Nathaniel Stevens 
Nye Stevens 
Charles Stetson 
Peleg Stewart 
Samuel Stoder (?) 
James Stuart 
Charles Sturtevant 
John Sturtevant 
Zadok Sturtevant 
Thomas Tabb 
John Tanner 
Hezekiah Tinkham 
Thomas Tobey 



The official record of the following has not yet been published, and 
the remainder of this list is therefore unverified. 



Ruben Tripp 
John Wallis 
John Warren 
Richard Warren, Sergt. 
Calvin Washburn 
Ephraim Washburn 
Isaac Washburn 
Thomas Weeden 
Eliphalet Weeks 
Joseph Wellen 
Francis West 
Joseph Whellen 



Cornelius White 
Justis White 
Mel'a White 

Thomas Whiteridge, Corp. 
Richard Whittemore 
Benjamin Wilbor, Corp. 
James Wilkens 
Thomas Wilkens 
Thomas Wilkey 
Samuel Wilomen (?) 
William W T iltshire 
Wing, Jr. 



Old Rochester Soldiers and Sailors 



357 



Benjamin Wing 
David Wing 
James Wing 
John Wing 
Joseph Wing 
Joseph Wing, Sergt. 
Jonathan W T ing 
Philip Wing 
Shubael Wing 
Stephen Wing 
Asa Winslow 



Edward Winslow 
John Winslow 
Kenelm Winslow 
Lemuel Winslow, 
Nathan Winslow 
Stephen Winslow 
Tisdale Winslow 
Howland Yong ( ?) 
Henry Yong, Corp. 
Solom Yong, Lieut. 



Sergt. 



The following names appear in the official record, but without resi- 
dence given. They were undoubtedly Rochester men. 



Oliver Allen 
Weston Allen 
Jonathan Amiable 
Samuel Arnold 
John Baker 
Aaron Barlow 
Seth Barlow 
Gideon Bester 
Gideon Besto 
Gideon Bestow 
Hopestill Bisbee 
Dennis Blackwell 
Job Blankinship 
Amaziah Bolles 
Benjamin Bolles 
David Bolles 
John Bolles 
Peter Bosworth 



(Barstow) 



Benjamin Brown 

Elisha Brown 

Seth Bumpus 

Ebenezer Burge 

Elijah (also given Elisha) Burge 

Seth Burges 

Thomas Carter 

Earl Church 



Jeremiah Clap 
John Clap 
Isaac Clark 
Lemuel Clark 
William Conant 
James Cowing 
Barnice Crain 
Edward Croell 
Stephen Cushing 
Cephas Cushman 
Samuel Daggott 
San ford Davis 
Stephen Delano 
David Dexter, Jr. 
Elijah Dexter 
Elisha Dexter 
Jonathan Dexter 
Joseph Dexter 
Jerathmeel Doty 
Joseph Edwards 
John Ellis 
Malachi Ellis 
Thomas Ellis 
Robert Foote 
Job Gibbs 
Aaron Hammond 
Enoch Hammond 



358 



Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 



"Iturael" (Israel?) Hammond 

John Hammond, 3rd. 

John Hammond, 4th 

Roger Hammond 

Ebenezer Haskell 

Lot Haskell 

Peter Haskell 

Timothy Haskell 

Thomas Hiller 

Abner Hillman 

Dominicus Hovey 

Nathaniel Jenne 

Joseph Levitt 

George Lincoln 

Barnabas Luce 

Stephen Luce 

Jesse Lumbart 

John Macomber 

Alden Manter 

Zaccheus Mead 

Ebenezer Meads 

Ebenezer Meigs 

Nathaniel Meigs 

John Miller 

John Muxcomb 

John Muxham, 2nd 

George B. Nye 

Peter Oliver 

Aaron Parker 

Asa Pease 



Joseph Perry 
Jonathan Pope 
Asaph Price 
Joseph Prince 
Amos Randal 
William Raymond 
John Rider 
David Rogers 

Dr. Samson 

Jabez Shearman 
Abishai Sherman 
Cornelius Sherman 
Elisha Sherman 
Joshua Sherman 

Micah (also given Micajah) Sher- 
man 
Nathaniel Shearman 
Richard Sherman 
Stephen Sherman 
Joseph Snow 
Joshua Snow 
Nathaniel Snow 
Josiah Sole 
George Taylor 
William Tanner 
James Swift 
Job Sturtevant 
John Spence 
Andrew Sturtevant 
Wilbr (Wilber) Southworth 



WAR OF 1812 

Ten thousand militia were called out in Massachusetts for the service 
of the War of 1812. No militia company is accredited to Rochester on 
the regular rolls. 



Jesse Haskell, Serg't Thomas Ellis, Corp. 

Capt. Stall's Company of Artillery, under Gen. Goodwin, in service 
at New Bedford from June 16 to August 1, 1814. 

Jona. Kinney Seth Mitchell 



Old Rochester Soldiers and Sailors 



359 



A Company in service in New Bedford and Fairhaven, Col. Lincoln's 
Reg't, June 30 to July 14, 1814. 

Sergeant's Guard at Rochester under General Goodwin, June and 
July, 1814. 

Jonathan Vaughn, En. Joseph Doty, Corp. 

Thomas Ashley, Sergt. Azel Bryant, Corp. 

Tillotson Dunham, Sergt. 



Privates 



Philip Avery 
Elijah Briggs 
Briggs Crapo 
Peleg Clark 
Joseph Bennett 
Joseph Bishop 
Barnabas N. Douglas 
John Sears 
Jesse Pratt 
Richard Corsing (?) 
Jonathan King 
John Cornwell 



Benjamin Rider 
Samuel Cowing 
Joseph Lombard 
Charles P. Hammond 
Moses Bates 
Solomon Hitchman 
Micah Blackwell 
William Stetson 
Eph'm Snow 
Peleg Hathaway 
Mich Stevens 
John Shearman 



Ensign's Guard at Rochester, under General Goodwin, from Sep- 
tember to October, 1814. 



Moses Mendall Ensign 
Dennis Prince, Sergt. 
Israel Hammond, Sergt. 



Perez Bassett, Corp. 
Jared Blankinship, Corp. 



Samuel Mendall 

Eph'm Snow 

Benjamin Snow 

Gideon Dexter 

Luke Dexter 

James Snow 

Caleb L. Cannon 

Jonathan Dexter 

Geo. Boston (Barstow ?) Jr. 

Nathaniel Cushing 

Jabez Handy 



Privates 

Francis Hillis 
Lemuel W. Lain 
Paddock Bates 
George Blankinship 
James Blankinship, Jr. 
William Crapo 
Briggs Crapo 
Josiah Cobb 
James Freeman 
Eph'm Tinkham 
Benjamin Cushing 



360 



Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 



n 

A RATE BILL OF THE INHABITANTS 
OF ROCHESTER, 1776 

From the original in the possession of Lemuel LeBaron Dexter 
Mattapoisett. 

The figures show the total tax levied, including Polls, Real, Per- 
sonal, and Faculty taxes. Polls were assessed 5s. 5d. 



Oliver Allen, £1 
Ephm Annible, 5s. 10c?. 
Saml Annible, 5s. 5d. 
Eleazer Allen, 5s. 5d. 
Jeremiah Austin, £2 7s. 10c?. 
Nathan Briggs, 9s. Od. 2q. 
Ebenr Barlow, 5s. 10c?. 
Nathl Bessey, 6*. 8d. 2q. 
Willm Barlow, 7*. 10c?. 2q. 
Thos Bolles, 16s. 9d. 2q. 
Seth Blackwell, £1 3s. 4c?. 
Saml Bolles, 17s. 2d. 2q. 
Joseph Barlow, 6s. lOd. 
Moses Barlow, lis. 4c?. 2c/. 
Aaron Barlow, 17s. 8c?. 
Silas Briggs, lis. 4c?. 2q. 
Saml Briggs 2nd, £1 2s. U. 2q. 
Silas Briggs Junr, 7s. 9c?. 
Obed Barlow, 15s. 9c?. 
Amittai Barlow, 15s. 9d. 
George Barlow, 6s. 3d. 2c/. 
Benja Bolles, lis. 6c?. 
Benja Bolles Jnr 5s. 5d. 
Seth Barlow, 7s. 5d. 
David Bolles, 15s. 4c?. 
Gideon Bestow, 17s. 2d. 2c/. 
Seth Bestow, 8s. 10c?. 
Wyat Barlow, 8s. lie?. 
Ebenr Bolles, 5s. 5d. 
Hosea Bolles, 5s. 5d. 



Amesiah Bolles, 8s. 2c?. 

Thos Carter, 5s. 5d. 

Robert Clark, 14s. 

Joseph Cannon, 7s. 8c?. 2c/. 

Thos Dexter, 5s. 5d. 

Silas Cross, 5s. 5d. 

Lot Cowing, 8s. 9c?. 

Nathl Cushing, 17s. lc?. 

Stephen Cushing, Gs. 10c?. 2c/. 

Earl Clap, .£1 0s. 5d. 

Ebenr Cannon, 7s. 3c?. 2q. 

Ezekiel Clark, lis. 10c?. 

Cephas Cushman, 9s. 2c?. 2c/. 

John Clark, Is. 5d. 

John Clark 4th, 5s. 5d. 

John Clark 3rd, 15s. lie?. 

Joshua Cowing, 15s. 

Zebeth Cowing, 7s. 

Zadock Cowing, 6s. 7c?. 

Asael Cowing, 6s. 7c?. 

Seth Cowing, lis. 8c?. 

John Curby, 14s. 8c?. 2c/. 

Charles Church, 12s. Id. 

Richard Church Jnr, £1 2s. 0c?. 2c/. 

wd. Bathiah Church, 19s. lie?. 2q. 

Lemuel Church, 5s. 5d. 

Gideon Cornall, 7s. 

James Clark, 5s. 5d. 

Seth Dexter, 19s. 8c?. 2q. 

Elijah Dexter, 7s. 9c?. 



Assessors' Rate Bill 



361 



wd Mary Dexter, £1 2s. 
Jsiah Dexter, 6*. Id. 2q. 
Jabez Dexter, 7*. 
Ephm Dexter, lis. lid. 2q. 
Caleb Dexter, 11*. lid. 2q. 
Benja Dexter Junr, 15s. 3d. 2q. 
Jonathan Dexter, 9*. 2d. 2q. 
David Dexter, 9s. 2d. 2q. 
John Dexter, 17s. 9d. 2q. 
John Dexter Junr, 5s. 5d. 
Silas Dexter, 5s. 5d. 
Edward Dexter, 8s. 9d. 
Benja Dexter, 17s. Id. 2q. 
Saml Eldredg, 5s. 5d. 
John Ellis, <£1 Os. 3d. 2q. 
Joshua Ellis, 5s. 5d. 
John Ellis Junr, £1 Is. 
Joseph Edwards, 5s. 5d. 
Elnathan Eldredge, 19s. Id. 2q. 
Joel Ellis, £1 3s. 4d. 2q. 
David Edwards, 8s. 
Chillingsworth Forster, 5s. 5d. 
Silvenas Gibbs, 12s. 6d. 2q. 
Abel House, 5s. 5d. 
Henry Headley, 8s. 5d. 2q. 
James Headley, 8s. Od. 2q. 
John Haskell Junr, 15s. U. 2q. 
Elijah Hammd, 7s. 5d. 2q. 
Jabez Hammd, Junr 1(R 2q. 
wd Abigail Hammd, 19s. 13d. Oq. 
Barzillai Hammd, 6s. 3d. 
Honeywell Hammd, 6s. Id. 
Josiah Hammd, .£1 Is. 3d. 2q. 
Elnathan Hammd, 5s. 5d. 
James Hammd, £1 Os. 3d 2q. 
Israel Hammd, 15s. 
John Hammd 2nd, 5s. 5d. 
John Hammd 3rd, 5s. 5d. 
Gideon Hammd, 7s. 9d. 
Nathan Hammd, 12s. lid. 2q. 
Enoch Hammd Esqr, £1 4s. lid. 
9q. 



Elisha Hammd, 1£ 7s. Id. 2q. 

Ebenr Hammd, 7s. 3d. 2q. 

wd Mehittable Haskell, £1 l s . 

8d. 2q. 
Elias Haskell, 5s. 5d. 
Barnibas Haskell, 5s. 5d. 

wd Anna Haskell £1 12s. 9d. 2q. 

David Hammd, 5s. 5d. 

Dominicus Hovey, 6s. Id. 

Saml Hovey, 5s. 5d. 

Thos Haskell, 6s. 6d. 2q. 

wd Abiah Haskell, 9s. lid. 

Zebulon Haskell, 5s. 5d. 

Job. Haskell, 6s. 3d. %q. 

Seth Hiller, £1 10s. lid. 

Ebenr Holmes, 6s. 19d. 2q. 

Isaac Handy, 7s. 3d. 2q. 

Jonathan Handy, 5s. lOd. 

Silas Handy, 5s. 5d. 

Moses Hiller, 19s. 3d. 

Isaac Hiller, 14s. Sd. 

Solomon Howard, 5s. 5d. 

wd Rebecca Hiller, 16s. id. 

Silvenas Hammd, ls. 9d. 

Nathl Hammd, 15s. 2rf. 

John Hammd, £1 6s. 6d. 2q. 

Timo Hammd, 18s. 6d. 
Zoath Hammd, 5s. lOd. 
Ebenr Haskell, 5s. 5d. 
Benja Hatch, lis. 6d. 2q. 
Lurey (?) Hatch, ls. 2d. 
Willm Irish, 16s. 5d. 2q. 
Noah Hammd, 5s. 5d. 
Saml Jenne, 7s. 9d. 
John Keen, 6s. 5d. 
Josiah Lumbard, 5s. 5d. 
Stephen Landers, 5s. lOd. 
George Lincoln, 5s. 5d. 
Zacchs Mead, £1 4s. Id. 
John Marshell, £1 lis. 2d. 2q. 
John Meggs, 7s. 
Nathl Meegs, 10s. 



362 



Matlapoisett and Old Rochester 



Jabez Norton, 12s. lOd. 
Ichabod Norton, 6s. 3d. 
Matthew Norton, 5s. 5d. 
Elijah Norton, 7s. 
Jonathan Nye, lis. lid. 2q. 
George Bonum Nye, 17s. 4d. 2q. 
Nathan Nye Junr, £1 4s. 3d. 
Willm Nye, 5s. lOd. 
Asa Price, 7s. Id. 
Theophilus Pease, 4s. 9d. 2q. 
Theophilus Pease Junr, lis. 4d. 2q. 
Doct John Pitcher, lis. lid. 
Isaac Pope, 7s. lOd. 2q. 
Isaac Pope Junr, lis. lOd. 
Stephen Perry, £2 10s. 4d. 
James Randol, £1 2s. 5d. 2^. 
Nathl Ruggles Esqr, £1 9s. 2d. 2q. 
John Randol, 8s. lid. 
David Randol, 8s. Od. 2?. 
Simeon Randol, £1 0s. 7d. 
Amos Randol, 8s. Od. %q. 
John Randol Junr, 5s. 5d. 
Lemuel Randol, 7s. lOd. 2q. 
Wd Mary Read, 18s. 8d. 
Lemuel Randol Junr, 5s. 5d. 
Thos Southworth, £1 4s. 6d. %q. 
Daniel Southworth, 5s. 5d. 
Joseph Snow, 6s. 3d. 2q. 
Seth Snow, 15s. 7d. <2q. 
Nye Stevens, 5s. 5d. 
Boreman Snow, 5s. 5d. 
John Shearman 2nd, 18s. 6d. 2^. 
Willm Shearman 4th, 6s. 
Willm Shearman 2nd, £1 2s. lid. 
Jabez Shearman, 5s. 5d. 
Saml Shearman, 16s. 2d. %q. 
Nathl Sears, 16s. 4d. 
Ebenr Sears, 6s. 
Andrew Stevens, lis. 5d. 
Timo Stevens Junr, 10s. lOd. 
Prince Stevens, 6s. lOd. 9q. 
Charles Sturtevant, £1 13s. 



Charles Sturtevant Jun, 5s. 5d. 

Cliarles Stetson, 14s. 4d. 

Ezra Stetson, 15s. lid. 

Wilber Southworth, 15s. lid. 

John Simonds, 6s. 

Zadock Sturtevant, 19s. lOd. 

Micah Sturtevant, 5s. 5d. 

Jonathan Sturtevant, 8s. 

James Stuart, 2s. 4d. 

James Stuart Junr, 7s. 5d. 9q. 

Anthony Savory, 7s. 3d. 

Ichabod Smith, lis. 2d. 2?. 

Joshua Snow, 7s. 2d. 

Timo Snow, 5s. 5d. 

Willm Shaw, Dart, Is. 9d. 

Consider Sampson, lis. 3d. 

Joshua Studley, 6s. 

Saml Sampson, 8s. 4d. 

Abisha Shearman, 15s. 9d. %q. 

Elihue Shearman, 15s. 7d. 2q. 

Jesse Trip, 13s. 7d. 

Saml Trip, Dart, 5s. lOd. 

Jonathan Trip, 5s. 5d. 

John Terry, lis. 8d. 

Majr Zacchs Tobey, Dart, 3s. id. 

2q. 
Peter Tinkham, 7s. 3d. 2q. 
Charles Tinkham, 5s. 5d. 
Ephm Tinkham, 5s. 5d. 
Isaac Vinsent, Dart, 4s. 4d. 2q. 
Willm Wiltshire, 7s. 9d. 
John Winslow, £1 10s. 6d. 
wd Bethiah Winslow, 17s. 8d. 
Nathan Winslow, 5s. 5d. 
wd Margaret Wing, Is. 9d. 
Jonathan W 7 ing, 6s. 5d. 
Charles Wing, 5s. 5d. 
Capt Edward Winslow, £1 4s. 
Tisdale Winslow, 7s. 3d. 
John Wallise, 5s. 5d. 
Timo West, 13s. 
Jonathan Wing Junr, 10s. 



Assessors' Rate Bill 363 

Solomon Young, 175. $d. Willm Nichols, 7*. Id. 

Solomon Young Junr, 5s. 5d. Daniel Croxford, 5s. 5d. 

Thos Tobey, 5s. 5d. Wkittemore, 5s. 5d. 

Asa Winslow, 5*. 5d. Beard, 55. 5d. 

Ebenr Bishop, 5s. 5d. Abraham Devill, 10s. 4<Z, 9q. 
Benja Wilbour, 5s. 5d. 

This Rate bill of the Inhabitants of the Town of Rochester Contain- 
ing the Sum of £132: 8: 2 in the Sum Total Compleated by us Janr 25: 
1776. 

Nathl Hamd 

David Wing [ Assessors of Rochester. 

John Doty 

In the above rate bill the following persons were assessed for a 
faculty tax of the amount indicated: — 

Jeremiah Austin, lOd. Nathan Nye Junr. Is. 2d. 

Gideon Bestow, 1*. 5d. %q. Doct, John Pitcher, 10s. 2d. 

Stephen Cushing, Id. Wilm Shearman 4th, Id. 

Earl Clap, Id. Zadock Sturtevant, Id. 

Wid Bathiah Church, lOd. 2q. Abisha Shearman, lOd. 2q. 
John Hamm d , Is, 5d, 2q. Elihue Shearman, lOd, 2q. 

Benja. Hatch, Id. 

Another rate bill of even date, for the sum of =£101 : 1 : 2: 2, was made 
by the same assessors and contains the same names. 

Ill 

A LIST OF MAXIMUM PRICES; 
ROCHESTER, 1777 

"In obedience to a law of Massachusetts Bay, entitled, 'An Act to 
Prevent Monopolies and Oppression;' we the selectmen & Committee 
in the Town of Rochester, in the said state, have proceeded to a State- 
ment of the several articles enumerated in their act, & others as directed 
by the said law to be stated, as shall not be sold in the said Town of 
Rochester, anytime hereafter for more than the prices affixed to the 
said article, as hereunder enumerated:" 

Reaping & Mowing, not to exceed 4s. per day. 

Other common Labour from the first day of Apr. to the first day of Oct. 

not to exceed 2s. 6d. per day, and the other six months not to exceed 

2s. per day. 



364 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

House-carpenters, Wheel-wrights, and Joyners, not to exceed 4s. per 
day in the summer season, & in the winter not to exceed 3s. per 
day. 

For one pair of oxen a day 2s. 6d.; for a cart a day 1*. 

For a Plow one day, 1*. 

Bloomery iron by the Cwt. not to exceed 30s. 

Maple coal not to exceed 4d. by the Bushell. 

Pine Do. not to exceed 3d. by the bushell. 

Horse-shoeing, all around, with toe and heel corks, not to exceed 6s. 

Good narrow axes not to exceed 8s. 

Good scythes not to exceed 8s. 

Good hoes not to exceed 4s. 

Iron work by the Cwt., or the single lb. not to exceed 3d. the lb. 

Good board nails by the M. not to exceed 15s.; and in ye like proportion 
for a smaller quantity. 

Good double tens by ye M. not to exceed 28s. 

Shingle nails by ye M. not to exceed 7s. 

Clapboard nails by ye M. not to exceed lis. 

Raw hides not to exceed 3d. per lb. 

Raw calves skins not to exceed 6d. per lb. 

Good tanned leather by ye lb. not to exceed Is. Atd. 

Curried Do. in proportion. 

For good shoes for men made of neats leather, best sort, not to exceed 
8s. Sd.; and others of that kind in proportion. 

Good women's calve skin shoes of the best sort not to exceed 7s.; and 
others in proportion. 

For making one pair of men's shoes, workmanlike, not to exceed 3s.; 
for makeing others in proportion, as usual. 

Weaving all wool, ell wide, not to exceed 6s. and other weaving in pro- 
portion according to former usage. 

Good summer wheat by the bushell not to exceed 6s. 6d. 

Good rye not to exceed 5s. 

Good Indian corn not to exceed 4s. 

Good merchantable sheeps wool not to exceed 2s. per lb. 

Pork, well fatted and of good quality not to exceed 4|d. by ye lb. 

Salt pork in the usual proportion, according to the price of salt. 

Beef, well fatted, grass fed, not to exceed 3d. per lb. 

Good imported salt, not to exceed 10s. per ye bushell. 

Salt, in town, manufactured from sea water, not to exceed 13s. per 
bushell. 

Good West India rum by the gallon not to exceed 7s. 8d.; and by the 
quart not to exceed 2s. 



List of Maximum Prices 



365 



Good phlip or Toddy by the mugg or the Bole with one-half pint of 

West India rum in the same, not to exceed 1*. 
For a Common Dinner, at Tavern, not to exceed Is. 
Other meals in proportion. 
For horse keeping by the night or twenty-four hours, by hay, not to 

exceed Is. 6d. 
A night's lodging at a Tavern, 4d. 

Horse keeping by grass at night or twenty-four hours not to exceed 1*. 
New England rum by the gallon not to exceed 4*. 8d.; or by the Quart 

not to exceed Is. 3d. 
Best Muscovado Sugar by the Cwt. not to exceed £3, and the same for 

half or half-quarter by the hundred, and by the single lb. not to 

exceed 8d. 
Molasses, the best sort, by ye hogshead, not to exceed 3s. 4d. by the 

gallon; by the barrel not to exceed 3s. 8d. a gallon; by the single 

gallon not to exceed 4s. 
Chocolate by ye lb. not to exceed Is. Sd.; cheap not to exceed 6d. per lb. 
Butter by the single lb. not to exceed 10c?.; by the firkin not to exceed 9d. 
Pease by the bushell, not to exceed 8s. 
Beens, by the bushell, not to exceed 6s. 
Spanish potatoes by ye bushell not to exceed Is. Gd. 
Good yarn Storkins, best sort, not to exceed 6s. 
Salt-Pork, 220 lbs. in a Barril, not to exceed £5. 
Salt-Beef by the Barril, 240 lb. in a barril, not to exceed £3, 14s. 6d. 
Good Cotten wool by ye lb. not to exceed 3s. 8d. 
Good oats, by the bushell, not to exceed 2s. 
Good flax, well dressed, by the lb., not to exceed Is. 
Good coffee, by the lb., not to exceed Is. 4c?. 
Tryed Tallow by the lb. not to exceed l\d. 
Good yard wide Toe Cloth by ye yard not to exceed 2s. 4d. 
Course Linen & toe Cloth of Different widths in proportion. 
Good striped flannel, yard wide, of a Good quality, not to exceed 3s. 6d. 

per yd. 
Flannel, Chect or Striped, Suitable for Shirting, not to exceed 4s. and 

other cloth in proportion, according to former usage. 
Oak wood at the shore not to exceed 13s. per cord. 
Split pine Do. at ye shore, not to exceed 9s. per cord. 
Homespun, yard wide, cotton and linnen cloth of the Common sort not 
to exceed 4s. by ye yd.; and other widths and qualities of linnen 
cloth in like proportion. 
Mutton & Veal not to exceed 4d. per lb. 
Flower from the Southern States not to exceed 24s. by the Cwt. 



366 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Teaming work, To cart a ton one mile, not to exceed Is. 6d.; and in 
proportion for a greater distance, referring to journeying with a 
team. 

Turkies, Dunghill Fowls, and Ducks, not to exceed 5d. per lb. 

Grease not to exceed 4d. per lb. 

Milk by the quart not to exceed 2£ d. 

English Hay, in the winter and Spring, not to exceed 3s. Sd. per Cwt.; 
English hay in the meadow, before stacked, not to exceed =£2. 14s. 
per ton. 

Salt hay in the marsh, before stacked, not to exceed 36s. per ton. 

Do. in the Winter and Spring, not to exceed 2s. 5d. per Cwt. 

Good merchantable white-pine boards, at the landing, not to exceed £3, 
by the M. 

Oats by the pottle, not to exceed 4tf. 

Horse hire for Journeying not to exceed 4<2. per mile. 

Ship carpenters, at old work, not to exceed 4s. Sd. per day if boarded. 

Corkers not to exceed 5s. 4d. per day if boarded. 

Cedar rails, not to exceed 28s., by the swampside, merchantable. 

Good merchantable cedar shingle not to exceed 22s. per M. at the Land- 
ing. 

Turnips, old sort, not to exceed Is. lOd. by the bushell. 

Turnips, Called french, Do., not to exceed 2s. 2d. by the bushell. 

Best Tobacco, leaf -stalked and pig tail role, not to exceed Sd. per lb. 

Common Do. not to exceed 5d. per lb. 

The best of men Taylors at journey work not to exceed 2s. Sd. per day. 
Records of the Town of Rochester, Vol. Ill, page 224. 

IV 
ASSESSORS' LIST, 1740 

A LIST OF PERSONS ASSESSED IN MATTAPOISETT IN 1740 

"This List and Valuation taken by the assessors of Mattapoisett 
Precinct in Rochester, in the year 1740, as followeth: 

men's names poles real parson l 

£ s. £ s. 

Joseph Alliver 1 6 10 8 

Joseph Bools .- 2 4 7 18 

Jonathan Bools 1 8 9 8 

Samuel Bools 1 6 12 13 



Assessors' List 367 

MEN'S NAMES POLES REAL PARSON L 

£ S. £ S . 

Joseph Barlow 1 18 o 21 10 

Ebenezer Barlow 1 jg 26 

George Barlow 1 12 17 6 

Thomas Clark 1 29 q 24 4 

Benjamin Bools 1 q 

John Clark 1 

Caleb Clark 1 

Thomas Dexter 1 20 16 8 

Josiah Dexter 1 6 8 14 

Constant Dexter 1 18 5 19 

Jabez Dexter 2 6 9 

George Danford 1 2 9 14 

Stephen Dewolf 1 1 18 

Daniel Dexter 1 

Ephraim Dexter 1 12 13 2 

Samuel Dexter 1 5 18 

John Danford 1 

Capt Benja. Hammond 2 20 26 8 

Lieut John Hammond 1 21 23 13 

Lieut Jabez Hammond 1 18 17 9 

Lieut Antipas Hammond 1 11 15 11 

Thomas Winslow 1 7 15 13 

Barzillai Hammond 1 9 18 6 

Rowland Hammond 8 17 

Matthew Howard 1 3 6 4 

Barnabas Hammond 2 9 23 2 

Benja. Hammond Junr 1 10 19 2 

Israel Hammond 1 11 10 18 14 

Nathan Hammond, 2nd 1 12 17 

Archelaus Hammond 1 1 10 16 6 

Josiah Hammond 1 9 12 6 

John Hammond, Junr 1 

Samuel Hix 4 

Mark Haskell, Tanner 9 

Ephraim Haskell 9 

Jonathan Johnson 1 7 18 

Miles Parker 1 2 10 4 

Thomas Randoll 2 10 12 

Lazarus Randoll 1 2 5 



LES 


REAL 


PARSON L 




£ 


s. 


£ s. 


1 








1 10 


1 


10 





4 


1 


12 





13 


1 


3 








2 


3 





6 





6 








1 











1 


3 





8 10 


1 












368 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

men's names 

Simeon Randoll 

William Raymond 

Jonathan Tobey 

Zaccheus Tobey 

Joseph Turner 2 

Elisha Tupper 

Meded Tupper 

Nathan Tupper 

William White 

This List and Valuation Consisting of £878 19s Od Estates and 52 
Poles being Mattapoisett Precinct State bill for this Present year made 
and compleated this 23 Day of June one thousand Seven Hundred and 
forty. 

Gideon Southworth 
Pr. Benja Hammond Junr. \ Assessors. 

Israel Hammond 
"Recorded pr me Gideon Southworth Prect Clerk" 

A true copy; Records of the Second Precinct in Rochester, Vol. I, 
page 34. 

Lemuel LeBaron Dexter, Precinct Clerk. 



LIST OF MEMBERS, 1772 

THE SECOND CHURCH IN ROCHESTER; MATTAPOISETT 
PRECINCT 

" A Catalogue of the Members of the Chh when Mr LeBaron was 
Ordained: January 29, 1772." 

MEN WOMEN 

Dn Clarke. Abigl Wife of Antipas Hammond. 

Dn Barlow. Pheba, Wife of Nathl Hammond. 

Eldr Barlow. Abigl, Wife of Jabez Hammond. 

John Hannable. Mary, Wife of Josiah Hammond. 

Zacheus Mead. Hannah, Wife of James Hammond. 

Josiah Hammond. Hannah, Wife of Dn Clarke. 

Aaron Barlow Drusillah, Wife of Enoch Hammond. 



List of Members, Second Church 



369 



MEN 

Joshua Snow. 
Antiphs Hammond. 
Nathl Hammond. 
Jabez Hammond. 
Enoch Hammond. 
John Hammond. 
Jonathn Bowles. 
Thorns Bowles. 
John Danford 
John Curby. 
Ephm Dexter. 
John Clark. 
Edward Dexter. 
Ebenr Cannon 
Saml Jenny. 
Luke Tobey. 
Gideon Barstow. 
Saml Look. 
Nehemiah Randall. 
Benjamin Bowles. 
Zacheus Hatch. 
Timothy Stephens. 
Amaziah Hammond. 
Nathl Hammond. 
Archelaus Hammond. 
Tom. | 

Toby. [Blacks. 
Jack. 



Mary, Wife of John Hammond. 
Abigl, Wife of Thos Southworth. 
Mary, Wife of Seth Dexter. 
Mary, Wife of Jonathn Bowles. 
Ann, Wife of Thos Bowles. 
Mary, Wife of Saml Bowles 
Desiah, Wife of Seth Snow. 
Epiphania, Wife of John Clark. 
Experience, Wife of Ebenezr Cannon. 
Merriam, Wife of Saml Jenny. 
Ann, Wife, of Luke Tobey. 
Jane, Wife of Gideon Barstow. 
Bathsheba, Wife of Charles Studson. 
Sarah, Wife of Zacheus Mead. 
Ruth, Wife of George Barlow. 
Abigl, Wife of Dn Barlow. 
Huldah, Wife of Abner Hammond. 
Elizabeth, Wife of John Amiable. 
Elizabeth, Wife of Archelaus Hammond. 
Mary, Wife of Jed: Hammond. 
Mary, Wife of Zachs Hatch. 
Lydia, Wife of Nathl Cushing. 
Susannah, Wife of John Bowles. 
Hannah, Wife of Ben : Bowles. 
Deborah, Wife of James Peckum. 
Elizabeth, Wife of the Revd Bezl Shaw. 
Dinah, Wife of Thos Mitchell. 
Elizabeth, Wife of John Clarke. 
Widow Else Clark. 
Widow Charity Hammond. 
Widow Lydia Bowles. 
Widow Mary Dexter. 
Widow Abigl Dexter. 
Widow Bath: Hammond. 
Abigl Clarke. 
Rose Hammond. 
Widow Cowen. 

A List of 81 Members, — 35 Men; 46 Women. 



370 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

VI 
INFANT BAPTISMS AND MARRIAGES 

From the Records of the Second Church in Rochester, Mattapoisett 
Precinct 

1. BAPTISMS 

The record books of the Congregational Church show the following 
baptisms between the years 1740 and 1857. Compiled from lists 
furnished by Lemuel LeBaron Dexter, Church Clerk. Where several 
children were baptized at one time, they appear under the name of the 
first child mentioned in the record. The following list of pastors in- 
dicate what minister officiated : — 

Rev. Ivory Hovey 1740-1768 

Rev. Lemuel LeBaron 1772-1836 

or Rev. Asahel Cobb, (Colleague) 1826-1830 

or Rev. Thomas Robbins, (Colleague) . . . 1832-1836 

Rev. Thomas Robbins 1836-1844 

Rev. Isaiah C. Thacher 1844-1849 

Rev. William L. Mather 1851-1855 

Rev. Charles Livingstone 1856-1857 

Rev. William L. Parsons 1858-1864 

ALLEN, Abigail Smith, Child of Perkins & Abigail, Nov. 8, 1776. 

Benjn the Chield of Barnibas by his wife was baptized on 

her account, Feb. 2, 1755. 

Betty, Jesse, Elisha, Loice, Children of Ebenr & Mary, Sept. 1778. 
ANNABLE (ANNIBLE), Elisha, William, Benjamin, Childr of Wilm 
& Taba (Hannable), Dec. 6, 1772. 

Elizabath the Chield of John, July 18, 1747. 

Ephraim Son to John by his wife, Nov. 24, 1744. 

John, Elizabeth, twins of William and Tabitha, Dec. 1777. 

John, Son of Tabitha & Wm, Oct., 1780. 

Jonathan, Ann, Samuel, Children of Wilm & Tabitha, Apr. 12, 1772. 

Leonard, Child of William & Tabitha, Dec. 11, 1774. 

Saml, Chield to John, Aug., 1749. 

BACON. Benjamin James, son of Benjamin Aug. 27, 1837. 
Eliza Ann, 1817. 

Nathan Crosby, Child of Benjn & Patience, Aug. 10, 1829. 
Sarah Allen, Child of Benjn & Sophia, 1823. 



Infant Baptisms 371 

Sophia, Child of Benjamin & Sophia, Nov. 2, 1825. 

Sophia Allen, dau. of Benjamin, Sept. 21, 1834. 

William Francis, son of Benjamin, Aug. 11, 1839. 
BAKER, Hunneman, adult, June 12, 1842. 

BARLOW, Abigail Daughter of Deacon Joseph by his wife Abigail, 
July 29, 1744. 

Benjn the Chield of Aaron by his wife Mary, Jan. 20, 1765. 

Ebenezer, the Son of Joseph, March 25, 1750. 

George, the Son of George by his wife Ruth, July 26, 1741. 

Hannah, Daughter of Obed & Rebekah, March, 1776. 

Mary, Child of Aaron & Marah his Wife, Oct. 23, 1774. 

Mary, the Daughter of Joseph by his wife Abigail, Oct. 25, 1747. 

Nathaniel the son of Aaron by his wife Mary, April 5, 1767. 

Rebekah, Child of Obed & Rebekah, Aug., 1784. 

Ruben, Enoch, Children of Obed, July 10, 1774. 

Ruth, Daughter of Aaron & wife Mary, Jan. 31, 1773. 

Ruth, the Daughter of George by his wife Ruth, May 19, 1745. 

Sarah, Child of Obed & Rebekah, 1782. 

Timothy, Son to Aaron & Mary his wife, Jan. 5, 1764. 

William & Wiate the Twins of Joseph by his wife Abigail, July 18, 
1742. 

William, Thomas, Jirah, Lewis, Childr of William & Content, July, 
1780. 
BARROWS, Almira, Child of Thomas & , 1807. 

Branch, son of Isaac and Lydia B., Aug. 31, 1845. 

Lucy Clark, Child of Branch, Nov., 1819. 

Mary Clark, dau. of Isaac N. & Lydia B. April 6, 1854. 

Samuel, Clarissa, George, Alpheus, & Bethiah, Childr; of Thomas 
& , 1807. 

Child of Branch & , 1813. 

BARSTOW, [see also Bester and Bestow]. 

Altol Olmner, son of Wilson, June 19, 1836. 

Anna, Child of Gideon Junr & Anna his wife, Jan., 1796. 

Benjamin Franklin, Edwin, Nathan Hammond, Childr of Benj & 
Rebecca, 1807. 

Betsy Drew, Child of Wilson & Betsy, 1824. 

Caleb, Child of Gideon Jun & Anna, 1796. 

Carolina, Child of James & Sarah, 1825. 

Deborah Loring, dau. of James, Oct. 30, 1832. 

Elizabeth Penn, Child of Benjamin & Rebecca, Oct. 1815. 

George Wales, Child of George & Sally, 1802. 

Gideon, Son of Wilson, Aug, 26, 1838. 



372 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Gideon, Jenny, Children of Gideon & Anna Junr. July, 1787. 

Helen, Caroline, and Elizabeth Penn, daughters of Nathan H., July 5, 
1835. 

Henry, Child of Benjamin & Rebecca, 1817. 

James Munro, Child of James & his Wife, 1820. 

Jane Wilson, Chd of Wilson & Eliz. : Aug. 6, 1827. 

Mary, dau. of James, Oct. 21, 1829. 

Jonathan Moore, Henry Wilson, Children of Wilson & Susanh, 1799. 

Joseph Chield of Aaron by his wife Mary, March 27, 1763. 

Lucy, Daughter of Gideon & Jenny, May 17, 1772. 

Lucy, Child of Wilson & Susannah, May, 1798. 

Mary, Child of Gideon & Anna, 1793. 

Mary Tobey, dau. of Nathan II., June 19, 1836. 

Mary Tobey, dau. of Nathan H., at home, sick, Nov. 26, 1840. 

Sarah Munro, Child of James & , Aug., 1822. 

Samuel, son of Wilson & Betsy, Aug. 15, 1829. 

Samuel Wilson, Child of Wilson & Betsy, Aug., 1825. 

Susan Congdon, Child of Benjamin & Rebecka, Oct., 1820. 

Susannah Parkman, Caleb, children of Wilson & Susanh, 1746. 

William Parkman, Child of Wilson & Susanh, 1803. 

Wilson, Child of Gideon & Anna, June, 1798. 

Wilson, Child of Wilson & Eliza, 1831. 

Zacheus Mead, Son of Gideon & Anna, 1789. 

Zaccheus Mead, son of Wilson, May 3, 1835. 
BEALLS, Mary Bealls, adult, April 7, 1839. 

BERRY, Nathan the Son of Ebenzer by his Wife Abigail, Nov. 10, 1751. 
BESSEY, Elizabeth, Child of Nathan & Elizabeth, 1810. 

James, Son of Nathl & Susanh, Sept. 20, 1772. 

Lovina, Daughter of Nathl & Susannah, June 15, 1777. 

Martha, Child of Nathl & Susanh, July, 1782. 

Nathan, Joshua, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Children of Natl & Susannah 
his Wife, June 7, 1772. 

Susana Hammond, Lydia Gifford, Almira, Childr of Nathan & Eliza, 
June 28, 1807. 
BESTER, Benjn the Chield of Gideon by his wife Jinne, Sept. 27, 

1767. 

Giddeon, Mary & Wilson the Children of Gideon by his wife Jinne, 
Aug. 11, 1766. 
BESTOW, Marah, Daughter of Seth & Ruth, May 5, 1776. 

Sarah, Caleb, Children of Gideon & Jenny, Aug. 9, 1772. 

Sarah, Child of Gideon & Jane, Dec. 1777. 
BEWEL, [see also Buell,] 



Infant Baptisms 373 

Marietta & Edward Franklin, children of Edward & Clarrissa, Oct 

1829. 
BISBER, Molly, Aurelia, Benjamin, Robert, Ezra, Joseph, Children 

of Benjamin & Hannah, Jan. 1775. 
BLACKWELL, John, Seth, Loice, Children of Seth & Loice, July, 

1808. 
BOLLS, Unice the Chield of Saml by his wife Mary, July 1, 1764. 

Lydia the Chield of Saml Junr by his wife Mary, April 3, 1763. 
BOOLS, Asa the Chield of Thorns by his wife Anne, June 27, 1756. 

Benjn the Chield of Benjn by his wife Hannah, Feb. 17, 1751. 

Deborah Ye Chield of Benjn by his wife Hannah, March 26, 1758. 

Ebenezer the Chield of Hozea, Mar. — June, 1851. 

Joannah the Chield of Samuel Junr by his wife Mary, July 5, 1767. 

Joseph the Chield of Samuel by his wife Mary, Aug. 21, 1768. 

Joshua the Chield of Saml Junr by his wife Mary, April 19, 1761. 

Mary the Chield of Benjamn by his wife Hannah, Augt. 3 1755. 

Pauf the Chield of Thms by his wife Ann, Aug. 30, 1761. 

Prince the Chield of Benjn by his wife Hannah, Novr. 28, 1762. 

Rhoda the Chield of Thorns by his wife Anne, July 24, 1763. 

Ruben the Chield of Thorns by his wife Ann, March 6, 1766. 

Samuel the Chield of Samuel Junr by his wife Mary, Novr. 17, 1765. 

Sarah the Chield of Thorns by his wife Anne, May 13, 1759. 

Sarai Ye Daughter of Thorns by his wife Anne, March 25, 1753. 

Hozea the Chield of Ye Widow Mehitible, April 28, 1754. 

Thankful the Daughter of Thorns by his wife Anne, March 30, 1755. 
BOOLES, Joanna the Chield of Benjn by his wife Hannah, July 22, 1753. 

John Jonathan & Experience the younger Children of the above 
Jonathan, Jan. 24, 1742. 
BOWLES, Ann Tobey, Child of Isaac & Catharine, Oct. 1825. 

Ezra, Mary, Children of Saml & Mary, May 7, 1777. 

Isaac, Son of Isaac & Catharine, Aug., 1821. 

John, Child of Isaac & Catharine, 1811. 

Joshua Wolden, Child of Asa & Keziah, 1796. 

Justus White, Child of Isaac & Catharine, Oct., 1816. 

Loice, Nathan, Children of Saml & Molly, July 7, 1772. 

Ophelia Butler, dau. of Isaac & Sarah, June 7, 1846. 

Resolved White, Child of Isaac & Catharine, 1823. 

Silvanus Tobey, Child of Isaac & Catharine, Sept., 1814. 

Sophia Wing, dau. of Isaac Jr., June 30, 1844. 

Stephen Wing, Child of Isaac & Katharine, Feb. 1813. 

Thomas, Jamima, Anna, Reuben, John, Childr of Asa & Keziah, 
1795. 



374 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

BRIGGS, Anna, Sarah, Mary, Nathan, Hannah, Childr of Nathan & 
Mary, March, 1786. 

Andrew South worth, son of George, at home, sick, Feb. 5, 1841. 

Elisha, Chield of Nathan & Mary, 1795. 

Elizabeth, Child of Nathan & Mary, July, 1786. 

Lois, adult, June 7, 1840. 

Lucy, the Child of Clement & Hannah, 1809. 

Silvanus & Abigail, Children of Nathan & Mary, Oct., 1792. 

Thomas Barrows, Child of Clem. & Hannah, Oct., 1815. 
BUELL, Edward Watson, son of Edward, June 14, 1835. 

Edward, son of Edward & Clarissa, June 26, 1853. 

Eliza LeBaron, dau. of Edward, June 17, 1838. 

Laura Josephine, dau. of Edward & Clarissa, Jan. 4, 1846. 

Reuben Dexter, son of Edward, Dec. 2, 1841. 

CANNON, Arvin, son of Watson, Aug. 4, 1839. 

Caleb Leonard, Child of Ebenezer Jun & his wife, 1796. 

Clara Meigs, dau. of Watson & Deborah, Nov. 16, 1845. 

David Howland, son of James Cannon, June 30, 1844. 

Ebenezr the Chield of Ebenez by his wife Experience, July 19, 1767. 

Ebenezr, Henry, Lincoln, Children of Eben & Eliza his Wife, July, 1824. 

Eliakim, Son of Eben & Experience, Nov., 1780. 

Eliakim, Child of Eben & Elizabeth, Nov. 2, 1825. 

Elsa Howland, Dau of Watson, Aug. 21, 1842. 

George Harrison, Child of Deacon Nathan & Eunice, Aug., 1825. 

Hallet Mitchell, Abigail Haskell, Martha, Joseph, Childr of Dn Nathan 

& Eunice, 1824. 
James, Child of Eliakim & Mary, 1808. 
Joseph, son of Ebenezer, Jr., Sept. 24, 1837. 
Martin Luther and Samuel Thomas, children of Ebenezer Jr., Oct. 12, 

1834. 
Mary & Martha the Children of Ebenezr by his wife Experience, 

May 12, 1765. 
Mary Howland, dau. of David H. & Susan C, June 26, 1853. 
Medad the Son of Ebenezer by his wife Experience, by Ye Revd Mr. 

Moore, Rochester, Aug. 10, 1770. 
Melinda Crosby, child of Calvin & Melinda, Jan. 6, 1829. 
Molly, Child of Ebenezer & Experience, Dec. 25, 1774. 
Nathan H. Barstow, son of David & Susan, Nov. 2, 1856. 
Nathan Son of Ebenezer & Experience his Wife, June 20, 1772. 
Priscilla Cushman, dau. of Calvin, Oct. 30, 1832. 
Priscilla Cushman, daughter of Calvin, Sept. 27, 1835. 



Infant Baptisms 375 

Ruth Briggs, Child of Eben, 1804. 

Ruth Briggs, Child of Ebenr & Silence, 1805. 

Silence Brigs, Child of Eben & H. Cannon, 1814. 

CARVER, Chandler, Zadock, Sarah, Lydia, Lucy, Children of Thos & 

, 1807. 

CATHEWAY, Helen Marr and Mercy Ann, daughters of William & 

Sarah, March 2, 1850. 
CHADWICK, Sarah Emily, dau. of John & A. M. D., June 26, 1853. 
CHURCH, Abigail the Chield of Calib, May 10, 1761. 

Alice Daughter of Caleb by his wife Mercy. Pr Revd Mr. Parker, 
Dec. 9, 1770. 
CLAGGON, Hannah the Chield of Joseph, Oct., 1743. 

Hannah the Chield of Joseph, July 22, 1750. 

Joseph the Chield of Joseph by his wife , April 23, 1759. 

Nathan the Chield of Joseph by his wife Hannah, April 10, 1763. 

Prince the Son of Joseph, May 4, 1752. 

Saml the Son of Joseph, at home, being sick, July 17, 1747. 

the Chield of Joseph by his wife, July 7, 1754. 

CLARK, Abigail the Chield of Deacn by his wife Abigail, May 10, 1760. 

Abby Ann, dau. of Watson & Drusilla, June 20, 1847. 

Allis Daughter to ye Widow Deborah, Jan. 13, 1744-5. 

Arelia Child of Elijah & Cynthia, & Hannah, of the same, 1796. 

Deborah Mead, dau. of Nathaniel & , Aug. 23, 1829. 

Elijah the Chield of Deacn Ezekiel by his wife Hannah, June 14, 1767. 

Elizabeth, Child of Elijah & Cinthia, 1799. 

Elizabath the Chield of John by his wife Elizabath, June 13, 1756. 

Eunice, Daughter to John by his Wife Epiphena, Sept. 10, 1749. 

Ezekiel, Child of Elijah & Cynthia, 1805. 

Ezekiel the Chield of Deacn Ezekiel by his wife Agibail, April 23, 1759. 

Harriet Deane, dau. of Nathaniel, at home, sick, Feb. 2, 1841. 

Helen Maria, dau. of Nathaniel, June 30, 1844. 

John Ye Son of John by his wife Epiphena, July 29, 1753. 

Joseph The Chield of Deacn Ezekiel by his wife Abigail May 8, 1757. 

Judith, daughter to Ezekiel by his wife Mary, 1749. 

Mary, Child of Elijah & Cynthia, 1807. 

Mary Ann, Child of Nathanl & Debo his wife, 1827. 

Mercy Daughter to Caleb by his wife Deborah by the Revd Mr. Peirce 
of Dartmouth in ye Pasters Absence, July, 1743. 

Moses the Chield of Deacn Ezekiel by his wife Hannah, June, 2, 1769. 

Nathaniel Dean, son of Nathaniel & Susan, Aug. 31, 1845. 

Nathaniel, son of Nathaniel & Susan, June 26, 1853. 

Parker the Chield of Deacn Ezekiel by his wife Hannah, May 26, 1765. 



376 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Susanna the Chield of John Clark by his wife Elizabath, Nov. 10, 1754. 

Susannah Child of Elijah & Cinthia, June, 1798. 

Temperance fhe Chield of Ezekiel by his wife Abigail, Oct. 20, 1754. 

Thomas son of Ezekiel by his wife Hannah, Pr Revd Mr. Shaw, Nan- 
tucket, Sept. 22, 1771. 

Thomas Parker, Child of Elijah & Cinthia, 1811. 

Unice the Daughter of Ezekiel by his wife Abigail Oct. 19, 1755. 

Walter, Child of Cornelius & Hannah of the First Chh in Rochester, 
Dec. 1793. 

William the Chield of John by his wife Elizabath, June 11, 1758. 
CLARKE, Elijah Mead, son of Nathaniel, Sept. 9, 1838. 
COHOON, Elizabath the Chield of William by his wife Elizabath, July 

22, 1759. 
COTTLE, John, Son of Abisha & Katharine, 1780. 
COWEN, John the Chield of Midean by his wife Sarah, Jan. 8, 1754. 

William the Chield of Midean by his wife Sarah, May 9, 1756. 
COWING, Mary, Israel, Jonathan, Patience, Experience, Children of 
Seth & Penelope, July 10, 1774. 

Penelope Cowing, Wife to Seth, March 6, 1774. 

Penelope, Daughter of Penelope & Seth, April, 1779. 

Ruth, Child of Seth & Penelope His Wife, Aug., 1776. 

Child of Seth & Penelope, July, 1782. 

CROSBY, Stephen Amos (?), son of Waterman, July 5, 1829. 

Eliza Ann, Child of Deacon & Eliza his Wife, Nov. 13, 1831. 

Elizabeth Sears, Alfred Kendrick, Franklin Kendrick, children of 
David, Oct. 6, 1839. 

Frederic Allen and Mary Ann, children of Prentiss, Sept. 6, 1835. 

Joseph Allen, son of N. A. and Louisa, July 6, 1856. 

Louisa, dau. of Uberto and Mary, July 9, 1848. 

Lurane Lovel, Child of Wat. & Susan, Aug. 11, 1829. 

Mary Eliza, dau. of Uberto & Mary, May 4, 1847. 

Nathaniel Allen son of Dea. Nathaniel, July 12, 1840. 

Uberto Crocker, Child of Mr., June, 1819. 

Thomas Kempton, son of Prentiss, Sept. 10, 1837. 

A child, dau. of Dea. (Nathaniel A.) at home, sick, Jan. 25, 1832. 

Uberto Crocker, son of Uberto C. & Mary, Dec. 28, 1845. 
CROSBY, William, son of Dea. N. Crosby, Dec. 2, 1841. 
CUSHING, Alice, Child of Alice & Nathl, 1817. 

Asa Pease, Child of N. & Phebe, Dec, 1792. 

Elizabeth, Child of Stephen & Rachel, July, 1782. 

Elizabeth West, Child of Nathanl. & Alice, 1820. 

Elnathan Hammond, Child of Nathl & Alice, 1811. 



Infant Baptisms 377 

Eunice Hammond, Child of Nat. & Eliz., 1809. 

John the Chield of Nathal by his wife Lydia, June 14, 1761. 

Martha, Child of Natl & Phebe & Sarah Child of the same, 1797. 

Mary Ann, Child of Nathl & Alice, 1822. 

Mooly the Chield of Nathaniel by his wife Lydia, Sept. 14, 1766. 

Nathaniel, Benjamin, Anna Turner, Joshua, Phebe, Childr of Nathl 

& Phebe, 1790. 
Oliff the Chield of Zattue by his wife Bethiah, Jan. 26, 1766. 
Sarah the Chield of Nathll by his wife Lydia, July 1, 1764. 
Thomas, Child of Stephen & Rachel, March, 1786. 
William, Jane, Stephen, Milton Foster, Children of Stephen & Rachel, 

May, 1781. 
Zattue the Chield of Bethiah Widw, Oct. 16, 1768. 
Zattue the Chield of Nathaniel by his wife Lydia, July 17, 1768. 

CUSHMAN, Henry Milton, Son of Alerton & , July 3, 1829. 

Philander, Alerton, Gardener, Sally, Laura, Childr of Alerton Cush- 

man, June, 1820. 

DEAN, Rachel Tyler, Child of Noah & , Newbedford, 1809. 

DE MARANVEL, Mary the Chield of Mary, April 4, 1756. 
DEXTER, Abigail Child of Ephraim by his wife Martha, May 5, 1746. 

Abigail, dau. of Jonathan, Mar. 6, 1833. 

Allis the Daughter of Josiah, Septembr 22, 1751. 

Anna, Child of Reuben & Polly, 1799. 

Anna, Child of Edward & Mary, Apr., 1779. 

Anne the Child of Edward at their own House by reason of its mother's 
Confinement by Sickness, Feb. 27, 1758. 

Benjn the Chield of Ebenezr by his wife Lydia, April 23, 1758. 

Benjamin, Son of Benjamin & , June, 1783. 

Benjn & Phillip Children to Josiah by his wife Abigail, Augt. 3, 1746. 

Benjamin Potter, Son of David & Sally, 1799. 

Caleb the Son of Ephraim, June 16, 1751. 

Caleb, Child of Caleb & Hannah, 1793. 

Caroline, Child of Reuben & Mary, Nov., 1813. 

Charles Robinson, Child of Eben & , 1821. 

, Chield to Josiah, 1749. 

Drucilla Child of Eb. & Desire, 1815. 

Eben Allen, Child of David & Sarah, July, 1786. 

Edward the Chield of Edward by his wife, Jan. 11, 1767. 

Elias Son to Seth & Mary his Wife, June 7, 1772. 

Elisha, the Chield of Peleg by his Wife Catharine, July 11. 1747. 

Elisha the Chield of Seth by his wife Mary, April 28, 1765. 



378 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Elizabath the Chield of Seth by his wife Mary, Oct. 2, 1768. 

Elizabeth Rogers, dau. of John, May 13, 1838. 

Elnathan the Chield of Elnathan by his wife Mary, at his own house 

a Lecture being preached at Ye same time, Deer. 13, 1758. 
Ephraim the Child of Ephraim by his wife Martha, July 18, 1742. 

Freeman & Children of Alden, 1814. 

Gideon the Son of Constant by his wife Meribah, Augt. 19, 1750. 

Hannah the Chield of Ebenezr by his wife Lydia, Oct. 31, 1756. 

Hannah daughter to Josiah by his wife Abigail, Jan. 31, 1747-8. 

Hannah Jane, adult, Dec. 1, 1839. 

Harvey, Child of David & Sarah His Wife, 1790. 

Hope, Child of Thankfull & Hannah, 1791. 

Isaac Son to Constant by his wife Meribah, July 22, 1744. 

Isaiah the Chield of Seth by his wife Mary, April 14, 1754. 

Jabez The Chield of Seth by his wife Mary, Octobr. 1, 1758. 

James Son to Edward and Mary His Wife, Feb. 16, 1772. 

Jane Chield to ye Widow Epiphena, Oct., 1745. 

Jesse the Son of Peleg, July 15, 1750. 

John the Son of Peleg by his wife Catherine, July 14, 1745. 

Jonathan the Chield of Josiah by his wife Abigail, Septr. 30, 1753. 

Jonathan Kelly, Child of Jno & Mary, 1812. 

Loess, Chield to P^phraim by his wife Martha, March 19, 1749. 

Lucy Alden, Child of Alden & Lucy, Oct., 1816. 

Martha Mayhew, dau of Allen, Sept. 10, 1837. 

Mary the Chield of Seth by his wife Mary, June 27, 1762. 

Mary, Child of Edw & Ms y, July, 1782. 

Mary Jane, dau. of John & Mary, Aug. 13, 1848. 

Meriah, Snow, Child of Jno & Mary, June 20, 1819. 

Meribah, Thomas, Ebenezer, Betty, Childr of Thomas & Hannah, 

March, 1780. 
Moores Rogers, son of John, Jan. 3, 1836. 

Nathan the Child of Constant by his wife Meribah, April 4, 1742. 
Nathan, son of Reuben & Mary, 1800. 
Pamela, Child of Jona. & Mary, Oct., 1816. 
Rebeckah, Child of Caleb & Hanh, 1790. 
Ruth and Ellis the children of Ephraim by his wife Martha, Aug. 9, 

1741. 
Saml, Child of Edward & Mary his Wife, March 13, 1774. 
Samuel Studly, Child of Jonathan & Mary his Wife, June, 1824. 
Sarah the Daughter of Seth by his wife Mary, Oct. 12, 1755. 
Stephen the Son of Constant by his Wife Meribah, April 24, 1748. 
Stephen Delano, son of Allen, June 14, 1840. 



Infant Baptisms 379 

Susan Parkman, Child of Reuben & Mary, 1803. 

Thankful the Chield of Josiah by his wife Abigail, May 30, 1756. 

Thankfull, Child of Joshua & Thankful, Sept. 30, 1787. 

Thorns Son to Constant by his wife Meribah, March 5, 1745-6. 

Thomas, Son of Eben & Desiah, 1807. 

Unice the Chield of Edward by his wife Mary, Dec. 4, 1768. 
DILINO (DILLINO, DELINO), Harper, the Chield of Jabez, April 21, 
1748. 

Nathan & Jabez Children of Jabez at his own House, Aug. 5, 1761. 

Stephen, the Son of Jabez, March 13, 1751. 
DUNHAM, Margaret Albertson Child of George & Mary, 1810. 

Mary Albert, Child of George & Mary, Aug., 1808. 

Mary, Sophronia, Childr of George & Mary, Nov., 1815. 

Rufus Albertson, Martha Ann, Children of George & Mary, June 
1820. 

EATON, Maria Rogers, dau. of Solomon & Maria, April 12, 1846. 

Martha Ann, dau. of Solomon Eaton, at home, sick, May 3, 1842. 
ELLIS, Ebenezer & Thankful the Children of Joel by his wife Elizabath, 
at their own House, Aug. 27, 1765. 

George the Son of Joel by his wife Elizabath, April 1, 1753. 

Mary, Child of Wm, Aug. 1780. 

FOSTER, Jerusha, Child of Elnathan & Thankfull, 1790. 

Polly, Elnathan Pope, Childr of Elnathan & Thankfull, July 16, 1787. 
FISH, Edwin Francis, son of Mr. & Mrs. Abiah, Jan. 1, 1851. 

GIBBS, Lucy LeBaron Child of A. & L., living in Fairhaven, Feb., 1813. 
GODFREY, Sarah & Mary the Children of Mehittibel wife to Joseph, 
Aug. 19, 1759. 

HALL, Abner Leonard, son to Abner, Aug. 21, 1856. 

Emily Francis and Nathan Dexter, children of Abner, Aug. 24, 1834. 
Martha Gibbs & Lucy Clarke, children of Abner & Anna, Aug. 30, 

1829. 
HAMLIN, Andrew Thomas, Lydia Weeks, Mercy Swift, children of 

Alpheus, June 12, 1842. 
HAMMOND Abia Moore, Child of Leonard & Acenath, 1820. 
Abigail the Chield of Elisha by his wife Elizabath, Aug. 31, 1760 
Abigail the Chield of Captn Jabez by his wife Abigail, July 25, 

1762 
Abigail', Daughter of Jabez & Priscilla, July 29, 1774. 



380 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Abigail, Matilda, Nancy, Antipas, Childr of Joseph & Rachel, Aug. 
25, 1780. 

Abner, Son of Abner & Huldah, Aug., 1776. 

Amitti Barlow, Child of Noah & Lydia, 1788. 

Ann Eliza, Child of Leonard & Acenath, June 15, 1829. 

Anna the Daughter of Rogr. Nov. 12, 1748. 

Anne the Chield of Jedediah by his wife Mary, June 11, 1758. 

Ansel, Son of Wyat & Mary, July 7, 1822. 

Anstus the Chield of Elisha by his wife Elizabath, April 23, 1758. 

Archelaus & Ruth the children of Amaziah at his House, Feb. 22, 
1764. 

Benjamin the Chield of Antipas by his wife Abigail, May 9, 1756. 

Benjamin the Chield of Enoch by his wife Druzillai, Sept. 4, 1763. 

Benjn the Chield of John by his wife Mary, April 2, 1759. 

Benjn the Chield of Rogr, July 26, 1752. 

Benjamin Franklin and Georgianna Kendrick, children of Franklin 
and Lurania, June 26, 1853. 

Betty, Moses, Stephen, Abel, Mehitable, Mercy, Childr of Moses & 
Mehitb., Aug. 1, 1773. 

Caleb, Son of Jabez & Priscilla, Aug. 16, 1776. 

Calib the Child of Captn Jabez by his wife Abigail, Jan. 9, 1757. 

Calvin Son of Jabez, Feb. 9, 1745-6. 

Cary the Chield of Josiah by his wife Rebeccah, May 6, 1764. 

Charity Daughter of Abner by his wife Huldah, Pr. Revd Mr. Moore, 
Oct. 28, 1770. 

Charles the Son of Arculaus, May 17, 1752. 

Deborah daughter of Rogr by his wife Charity, Nov., 1746. 

Deborah & Susannah Ruggles, Childr of Wo Debo, Aug., 1784. 

Dulcina, Deborah, Children of James & Deborah, 1807. 

Edwin, son of James, Dec. 4, 1838. 

Elisha the Chield of Elisha by his wife Elizabath, June 19, 1763. 

Elizabeth Daughter of Abner & Huldah, Apr. 19, 1772. 

Elizabath the Chield of Antipas by his wife Abigail, March 8, 1752. 

Elizabeth Pitson ( ?), Micah, Children of Micah & Eliz. she being a 
Member of a Chh. in Boston, 1782. 

Elizabeth Pope adult, June 12, 1842. 

Elnathan Son to John by his wife Mary, July 27, 1746. 

Elnathan, Anstriss, & Richard, Children of Josiah by his wife Re- 
becca, Sept. 5, 1756. 

Enoch, Child of Nathl & Lucy, Oct., 1798. 

Gardnr the Chield of Ameziah by his wife, Aug. 15, 1757. 

George the Son of Captn Jabez by his wife Abigail, Sept, 22, 1754. 






Infant Baptisms 381 

George Augustus, child of Leonard & Acenath, June, 10, 1825. 
Hannah Daughter to Benjn Junr by his wife Priscilla, Dec. 25, 1743. 
Hannah the Chield of Elisha by his wife Elizabath, July 13, 1755. 
Hannah Chield of John by his wife Mary, March 26, 1763. 
Israel the Child of Israel by his wife Elizabath at their own House 

being Dangerously Sick, July 21, 1745. 
Israel, a man of 92 years of Age, 1799. 
James, an Adult, March 28, 1773. 
James, Child of Gideon & Mary, 1796. 
James the son of James by his wife Hannah, Aug. 21, 1763. 
Jabez, the Son of Jabez by his wife Abigail, July 5, 1741. 
Jane Leonard, dau. of Leonard, Oct. 5, 1834. 
Jedediah the Chield of Jedediah by his wife Mary at a Lecture at Mr. 

Jonathan Bool's publickly notified, Sept. 23, 1767. 
Jesse the Chield of James by his wife Hannah, May 26, 1765. 
Jirah, Son of Faunce & Mary, Oct. 1778. 
John the Son of Capt. Jabez, March 11, 1750. 
John ye Son of John by his wife Mary, July 22, 1783. 
John the Chield of John by his wife Mary, Nov. 7, 1756. 
John Son of Israil by his Wife Elizebath, Jan. 22, 1748-9. 
John Clapp, son of Dea. A. B. & Lucinda his Wife, July 15, 1829. 
Joanna and Susannah Children of Elisha by his wife Elizabath, April 

19, 1748. 
Jonathan the Chield of Abner by his Wife Huldah, Jan. 9, 1763. 
Joseph Son of Antips, Oct. 11, 1747. 
Joseph, Jenny, Adeline, Amelia, Loring, Frederic, Mary Blossom, 

Childr of Gideon & Rebecka, 1824. 
Joseph Franklin, Child of Leonard & Acenath, 1817. 
Josiah was Baptized & all his Children Nathan Charity Deborah 

Peckum Josiah Bethiah Hannah Abner & Mary at his own house, 

Nov. 19, 1741. 
Judah the Chield of Archelaus by his wife Elizabath, Oct. 9, 1753. 
Lemuel Son to Saml by his wife Elizabath, Nov. 22, 1741. 
Lothrop the Chield of Josiah by his wife Rebecca, June 6, 1762. 
Lucy Daughter to Saml by his wife Elizabath, Aug. 5, 1744. 
Lucy, Hannah, Sophia, Sukey, Marah, Childr of Jesse & Sukey, 1806. 
Luther, the Son of Faunce & Mary, June 10, 1781. 
Luther Son of Jabez by his wife Abigail, April 12, 1744. 
Mary of Barzillai by his wife Anne by Revd Mr. Brown of Little 

Comptn, Sept. 21, 1755. 
Mary the Daughter of John by his wife Mary, Feb. 25, 1749-50. 
Mary the Chield of Pollipus by his wife Barsheba, Oct. 3, 1756. 



382 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Mary Elizabeth, dau. of James, March 26, 1842. 

Mehitable wife of Moses, Nov. 29, 1772. 

Moses, June 13, 1773. 

Nathan the Chield of Josiah by his Wife Rebeccah, June 29, 1766. 

Nathan an Adult of 80 Yrs. (recorded in proprio loco), 1779. 

Nathaniel, Stephen, Ruth, Sally, Jabez Holmes, Children of Faunce & 

Mary, March 27, 1774. 
Noah, Son of Noah & Lydia, Sept. 1787. 

Olive the Daughter of Rogr by his wife Charity, July 14, 1745. 
Parnal the Chield of Jedediah by his wife Mary, May 25, 1760. 
Priscilla the Daughter of Benj. Junr. by his wife Priscilla, April 12, 

1741. 
Priscilla, Child of Natl & Lucy, 1796. 

Priscillai the Chield of Josiah by his wife Rebecca, March 23, 1760. 
Rebekah daughter of Jabez & Priscilla, April 12, 1772. 
Rebekah, Elizabeth, Priscilla, Childr of Noah & Eunice, Sept. 26, 1784. 
Rhode Daughter to Jabez, Dec. 27, 1747. 
Rogr the Chield of Abner by his wife Huldah, May 3, 1761. 
Rogr the Chield of Rogr by his wife Charity, June 15, 1757. 
Roger Wing, Child of Jessee & Susan, 1807. 
Rose the Daughter of Samuel by his wife Elizabeth, May 15, 1748. 
Rufus, Son of Nathl & Lucy, 1799. 
Ruth, Child of Abner & Huldah, July 3, 1774. 
Ruth the Chield of Enoch by his wife Drewzillar, April 14, 1765. 
Ruth the Chield of Captn Jabez by his wife Abigail, Oct. 7, 1759. 
Sarah the Daughter of Israel by his wife Elizabath, at their House, 

being Dangerously Sick, Novr. 11, 1741. 
Sarah, Meribah, Mary & Ellis the Children of Barnabas by his wife 

Susanna, July 11, 1742. 
Sarah Shaw, Child of Jesse & Susan, 1809. 
Sarah Winslow, child of Joseph & Sophia, July 6, 1851. 
Seth & Barnabas Children of Saml by his wife Elizabath, Sept. 29, 

1745. 
Susannah the Chield of James by his Wife Hannah, Oct. 1, 1758. 
Susan, Joseph, Jesse, Sarah Winslow, Childr of Jesse, 1825. 
Sylvia Russell, dau. of Gideon 2nd, April 24, 1834. 
Sympson the Chield of Jedediah by his Wife Mary, Oct. 14, 1750. 
Thankful the Chield of Roger by his wife Charity, Sept. 22, 1754. 
Thankful & Hannah the Children of Abner by his wife Huldah, 

July 31, 1768. 
Thorns the Chield of Enoch by his wife Drewzillar, Aug. 31, 1766. 
Thomas C. son of Franklin & Lurana, Nov. 2, 1856. 



Infant Baptisms 383 

Thomas Cushman, Child of Leonard & Acenath, Aug., 1823. 

Thomas Faunce, Son of Faunce & Mary, Jan. 30, 1784. 

Timothy Son to John Junr by his wife Mary, March 11, 1743^.. 

Unice the Chield of Josiah Junr by his wife Rebecca, April 9, 1758. 

Waty, Child of Gideon & Mary, 1801. 

William George Cowell and John Mayo sons of James and of his wife, 
Jan. 9, 1838. 

William LeBaron, Mary Allen, Childr of Wyatt & Mary, June 18, 
1820. 

Chield to Jedediah by his Wife Mary, 1749. 

the Chield of Jedediah, July 5, 1752. 

the Chield of Jedediah by his Wife Mary, July 27, 1755. 

the Chield of Jedediah by his wife Mary Oct. 16, 1763, 

HARLOW, Abner Wood and Mary Stanton, children of Abner Harlow, 
at the funeral of their mother, May 20, 1839. 

Sarah, Daughter Nathanal, July 27, 1829. 
HASKIL, Ephraim, Jabez & Barnibas Children to Ephraim of Ye 

other Parish, Feb. 1, 1748-9. 
HATCH, Ann Folgar, Child of Benjn & , 1799. 

Martha the Chield of Obed by his wife Ruth, Nov. 14, 1762. 

Samuel The Chield of Obid by his wife Ruth, July 6, 1760. 

the Daughter of Timothy, July 19, 1752. 

HIGGINS, Hannah, Elizabeth, Jonathan, Wilson, Childr of Heman, 

1799. 
HITCH, Frederic Augustus, Child of H. Living in Fairhaven, Feb., 

1813. 
HOLMES, Alsy, Child of Ebnr & Desire, July 5, 1807. 

Mary, Child of Eben & Keziah, 1809. 
HOODLY, Ann Allen, Daughter of Joshua & Amy, June 4, 1775. 
HOSKINS, Bethiah the Chield of Samuel by his wife Elizabath, March 

10, 1766. 
HOUSE, Abel, Son of Abel & Bethiah, Oct., 1781. 
HOWARD, Phebe the wife of Mathew, Nov. 1, 1741. 
HOWLAND, Delia Eldredge, dau. of Rowland and Grace, Jan. 3, 1847. 

Eldredge, dau. of Rowland, Sept. 28, 1834. 

Edward Payson, son of Rowland, July 8, 1838. 

Grace Ellen, dau. of Rowland & Grace, Sept. 1, 1850. 
HOVEY, Anne the Chield of Ivory Hovey by his wife Olive, Nov. 10, 
1754. 

Ivory the Child of Ivory by his wife Olive, July 18, 1742. 

Ivory 2nd, the Son of Revd Ivory by his wife Olive, Jan. 8, 1748-9. 

Olive Daughter of ye Revd Ivory by his wife Olive, Aug. 10, 1746. 



384 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Samuel the Chield of Ye Revd. Ivory, Dec. 23, 1750. 






JACKSON, Jemimah, the Child of Samuel by his wife Elizabath, Dec. 

20, 1742. 
JENNY, [see also Jinne.] 

Joshua Cushman, Benjn Cushman Childr of Ansel & Phebe, 1807. 
JINNE, Abner the Son of Jabez, Sept. 13, 1747. 

Anne Ye Chield of Saml by his wife Mary Anne, Oct. 15, 1758. 
Benjamin the Chield of Samuel by his wife Mary Anne, July 29, 1764. 
Caleb Ye Son of Caleb, April 11, 1750. 

Elizabath the Child of Jabez by his wife Ruth, March 2, 1745-6. 
Hannah, Chield to Jabez, Aug. 20, 1749. 

Ingatius the Chield of Samuel by his wife Mary Anne, Nov. 1, 1761. 
JOHNSON, John, Child of John, Living in Fairhaven, Feb., 1813. 
Jonathan at his own house being by the Consent of this Chh & in the 

Presence of Some of the Brethren, Nov. 2, 1741. 
JONES, Mary Angeline, dau. of Lot N., Sept. 10, 1837. 

Lettice the Chield of Samll by his wife Mary Anne, Aug. 16, 1767. 
Levy and children of Cornelius of Dartmouth at his own 

House, April 11, 1750. 
Mary, Chield to Lettice, at Dartmouth, June 22, 1749. 
Nathaniel Ye Chield of Samuel by his wife Mary Anne, March 11, 

1759. 
Patience Hall the Chield of Saml of Dartmouth by his wife, Oct. 19, 

1760. 
Zilpha Daughter of Jabez, March 24, 1745. 
the Chield of Jabez by his wife at the House of Mr. Ignacious 

Jinne's at a Lecture, June 14, 1763. 

LANDERS, Elizabeth, dau. of Bethuel, at home, sick, Dec. 20, 1840. 

Mary Alice, daughter of Bethuel, Feb. 7, 1841. 

Washington I, son of Thomas & Nancy, July 29, 1849. 
LeBARON, Ann, Child of Leml & Elizabeth, Dec, 1777. 

Charles Henry, Child of Wm & Eliz: Dec, 1823. 

Elizabeth, Child of Leml & Elizabeth, 1784. 

Elizabeth the Child of Wm & Elizabeth, July, 1816. 

Elizabeth Allen, Child of Lazarus & Priscilla LeBaron, Nov. 6, 1813. 

Enoch Hammond, Jane Barstow, Children of Lazarus & Priscilla, 
Aug. 7, 1824. 

James, Child of Leml & Elizabeth, 1794. 

John Allen, Son of Lemuel & Elizabeth, May 26, 1782. 

Lazarus, Child of Leml & Eliz: 1788. 



Infant Baptisms 385 

Lemuel, Son of Leml & Elizabeth LeBaron, Feb., 1780. 

Lemuel, Son of Leml & Elizabeth, Sept. 7, 1775. 

Lemuel, James, Horatio Gates, Childr of Jn A. & Abigail his wife, 
Deceased, 1816. 

Sally Alden, a Child of Leml & Eliza: 1791. 

Sarah Ann, Child of Wm & Elizabeth, May 26, 1811. 

Thomas Kitredge, Child of Leml & Martha, Roxbury, June, 1820. 

Thomas Robbins, Child of William & Eliza, June 20, 1819. 

William, Child of Lemuel & Eliza: 1786. 

William Bradford, Child of Wm & Eliza, Nov., 1814. 
LEWIS, Almira Lewis, adult, June 7, 1840. 

LOOK, Adam, Joseph, John, Ruth, Rebecca, Margaret, the Children 
of Samuel by his wife Ruth, at his own House, Jan. 12, 1742. 

Ellis the Child of Samuel by his wife Ruth, Sept. 19, 1742. 
LUMBERT, Abisha Hammond, son of Capt Thomas & Mary, April 
26, 1846. 



MAYHEW, Elizabeth Child of Matthew & Sally, July 11, 1819. 

Elizabeth, Child of Matthew & Sally, March 81, 1831. 

Elizabeth Allen, dau. of Matthew, Mar. 31, 1833. 

Francis LeBaron, Son of Matthew & Sally, June, 1822. 

John Allen, Son of Math. & S., July 20, 1829. 

Thomas, Child of Matthew & Sally, 1824. 
MEAD, Anna, Child of Eben & Priscilla, 1790. 

Anne ye Chield of Zecheus by his wife Sarah, Nov. 19, 1758. 

Debby, Daughter of Eben & Priscilla Mead, 1799. 

Ebenezer the Chield of Zechaus by his wife Sarah, Aug. 31, 1760. 

Elijah Son of Eben & Priscilla, Dec, 1792. 

Elizabeth Child of Eben & Priscilla, 1794. 

Mary, the Child of Ebenr & Priscilla, June, 1803. 

Rachel the Chield of Zacheus by his wife Sarah, Aug. 1, 1762. 

Rachel, Child of Eben & Prissy, May, 1788. 

Samuel the Chield of Zecheus by his wife Sarah, May 8, 1765. 

Sarah, Child of Eben & Prissy, Sept. 30, 1787. 
MEIGGS, Abigail, Sarah, Ephraim, Mary, Joseph, Childs of Ephm 

& N., 1807. 
MEGGS, Caleb & Joseph, Childr of John & Elsa, Aug, 1780. 

Mary, Nathaniel, & Rebecca Children of Ebenezer April 20, 1750. 
MERRITHEW, Henry Davis, William Warner, Calvin Cannon, Alex- 
ander Coffin, Eugene Bradbury, children of widow Silence, Jan. 31, 
1852. 



386 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Samuel Nye, son of William, Aug. 30, 1835. 
William, son of William, July 1, 1838. 

NEALL, Josiah Nathan, Abigail, Nathaniel Hammond, Childr of Mary 
& Job, Aug., 1792. 

Mary, Daughter of Job & Mary, 1794. 
NICKERSON, Nathaniel the Chield of Samuel, Feb. 24, 1751. 
NORTON, Aaron, Child of Aaron & Abigail, June, 1780. 

Adoniram, Child of Aaron & Rhoda, June, 1786. 

Betty, Child of Aaron & Abigail, May 26, 1782. 

Jabez, Son of Aaron & his Wife Marthar, Sept. 15, 1777. 

Mary the Chield of Jabez by his wife Elizabeth, June 11, 1758. 

Matthew, Son of Aaron & Abigail, June, 1784. 

Priscillai the Chield of Jabez by his wife , May 25, 1760. 

PARKER, Hannah, wife to Jesse and was received into full communion, 
Mar. 28, 1756. 

Bethiah & Moses Children of Jesse by his wife Hannah, Apr. 4, 1756. 

Aaron the Chield of Jesse by his Wife Anna, Feb. 26, 1758. 
PEASE, Asenath, Daughter of Theophilus & Ruth, July 18, 1773. 

Cornelius, Child of Cornelius & Phebe, July, 1782. 

Eunice, Theophilus, Onesiphorous, Joanna, Abner, Childr of Theoph 
& Ruth, Oct. 18, 1772. 

John Merchant, Son of Cornelius & Phebe, Aug. 1785. 

Lydia, Daughter of Cornelius & Phebe, Dec. 30, 1780. 

Phebe, Polly, Nabby, Ruth, Childr of Cornelius & Phebe, June, 1780. 
PECKUM, Susanna & Isaiah Children of James of Dartmouth by his 

wife Deborah, Apr. 10, 1743. 
PELL, John Son to Edward by his wife Jerusha, Oct. 10, 1744. 
PHELPS, Edward Phelps, an Adult a Black, & Afterward Sarah his 
wife, 1784. 

Jane, Alvin, John, Sarah, Childr of Edw & Sarah, Nov. 1785 
POPE, Joanna, Chield to Thomas of Dartmouth, July 22, 1749. 
PRICE, Lydia Child of Asa & Thankfull, May 9, 1773. 

Sarah, John, Chadwick, Children of Asa & Thankfull, June 20, 1772. 

Thankfull, Child of Asa & Thankfull, 1778. 

AIMOND, Deborah Child to Willm by his wife Hannah, July 28, 

1745. 
Hannah the Chield of William by his wife Hannah, Dec. 26, 1756. 
Nathan the Chield of William by his wife Hannah, June 16, 1754. 
Thankful the Daughter of William, Oct. 13, 1751. 



Infant Baptisms 387 

William the Child of William, March 27, 1743. 

Zilpha, the Daughter of William by his Wife Hannah, Nov. 22, 1747. 
RANDAL, Bashebah the Chield of Nehemiah by his wife Hopestill, 
Aug. 26, 1764. 

Elizabath the Chield of Micah by his wife May 27, 1764. 

Moses & Ann, William & Hannah the Children of Micah by his wife 
Elizebath at their own house, Oct. 20, 1762. 

Nehemiah the Chield of Nehemiah by his wife Hopestill, May 25, 1760. 
RANDOL, Clement, Child of David & Priscilla, July, 1782. 

Peace, an Adult, May 30, 1781. 

REVES, Joseph Fontain, Child of Abiel & , 1809. 

RICHMAN, Lucy, the Chield of Perez of Dartmouth in Coxit, May, 

1752. 
ROGERS, Clarissa Moores, Child of Moores & Mary, 1803. 

Elizabeth, Child of Widow, June, 1783. 

Ezra Cushman, Child of Abisha & Judith, Aug., 1808. 

Isaiah, Child of & Isaiah, 1807. 

Judith Cushman, Child of Mary & Moores, 1811. 

Judith Cushman, Child of Abisha & Judith Rogers, Nov. 1813. 

Martha Ann, Child of Abish & Judith, Oct. 1825. 

Mary Soul, Child of Moores & Mary, 1809. 

Meriah Sanford Child of Abisha & Judith, 1811. 

Moores Allen, Child of Moores & Mary, 1807. 

Rachel Rogers, adult, Feb. 7, 1841. 

Rebekah, Moors, Sarah, Children of Wido Alice (?), July, 1782. 

William Barrows, Child of Moores & Polly, Nov., 1813. 

William Loyd, son of William B. & Sarah, June 26, 1853. 
RUSSELL, Frederick Leonard, son of Frederick & Caroline, Nov. 3, 
1850. 

Sarah, dau. of Frederick & Caroline, July 29, 1849. 

SANDERS, Edward, Child of A. & , 1823. 

Lydia the Child of Henry by his wife Mary, July 21, 1745. 
SEARS, Isaiah, adult, by immersion, Fast Day, April 1, 1842. 

Rebeccah, Child of Nathn & , July, 1782. 

Thankful Josephine, adult, Aug. 4, 1830. 
SIMMONS, Mary Ye Daughter of Peleg by his wife Mary, July 5, 1747. 

, Chield to Peleg, Aug. 30, 1740. 

SHERMEN, Asa, Child of Deacon Elihu & Eliza His Wife, Dec. 1791. 

Elihu, Child of Elihu & Elizabeth, Dec. 1777. 

Elihu An Adult, June 4, 1775. (recorded in proprio loco.) 

James, Son of Elihu & Eliz., May 6, 1781. 



388 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Jedediah, Elizabeth, Childr of Elihu & Elizabeth, Aug. 4, 1775. 
Melintha, Daughter of Elihu & Elizabeth, May 5, 1776. 
SMITH, Jeremiah, Joseph, William, Anna, Mary, Childr of Sol & Zilph, 

June, 1807. 
Lucy, John, Children of Solomon & Zilpha, 1811. 
Mary the Child of Thos & Cassandra, Nov., 1815. 
SNOW, Charles Dunbar and Harrison, sons of Stephen and Eunice, 

Sept. 8, 1844. 
Ebenezer the Chield of Seth By his wife Desire, May 16, 1756. 
Ebenezer Son of Eben & Eleanor, 1800. 
Edward Francis, Joseph Cannon, Susan Amanda, Abigail Haskell, — 

children of Stephen, Oct. 5, 1834. 
Eleanor Young, Child of Eben & Eleanor, 1796. 
Henry Hudson, Child of Thomas, Nov., 1813. 
Ivory the Chield of Joshua by his wife Ruth, Aug. 1, 1762. 
James the Chield of Seth by his wife Desire, April 23, 1758. 
James & Mary Children of Joshua & Ruth, May 24, 1772. 
James, Susanah, Chloe, Maryan Snow, Mary Eliza. Childr of Eben & 

Desire, 1807. 
Jane, Child of Prince & Martha, July, 1816. 
Joanna, Child of Ebenr & Eleanor, 1790. 
Joseph, Child of Joseph & Rachel his wife, Oct. 10, 1773. 
Joshua the Chield of Joshua by his wife Ruth, May 5, 1765. 
Levi Morton, son of Levi, at home, sick, Dec. 1841. 
Lidia the Daughter of Joshua by his wife Ruth, May 11, 1735. 
Lucy, Child of Freeman & his Wife, 1788. 
Nancy, James, Betsey Prince, Stephen, Harvey, Avery, Rachel, 

Children of Prince & Martha, 1808. 
Nancy, John, Children of Thmas, 1807. 
Nancy & John, Children of Thos, July 26, 1807. 
Phebee Daughter to Joshua by his wife Joanna, June 12, 1757. 
Rachel & Elizabeth, Children of Eben: May, 1788. 
Rebekah, Child of Joshua & Ruth, Sept. 4, 1774. 
Rebekah West, Child of Eben & Eleanor, 1793. 
Richard the Chield of Seth by his wife Desire, May 26, 1754. 
Ruth the Chield of Joshua by his wife Ruth, July 12, 1767. 
Saml & Nicholas Children of Nathaniel of the other Parish, Jan. 14, 

1745-6. 
Sarah the Chield of Seth by his wife Desire, Oct. 5, 1760. 
Seth Boardman, Desire West & Benjamin, Children of Seth by his 
wife Desire, April 20, 1750. 

Susan Willis Child of Thomas & Nancy, 1811. 



Infant Baptisms 389 

Thomas, Son of Joseph & Rachel, Sept, 1776. 

Timothy the Chield of Joshua by his Wife Ruth, April 28, 1754. 

William, Child of Prince & Martha, 1821. 

Winslow the Chield of Joshua by his wife Ruth, Oct. 28, 1759. 

the Chield of Seth, July 15, 1750. 

SOULE, Thomas H., adult, April 12, 1835. 

William Thomas, son of Thomas, Dec. 11, 1836. 

Ebenezer Son of Gideon, Jan 13, 1744-5. 

John Ye Chield of Thorns by his wife Abigail, May 30, 1756. 
SOUTHWORTH, Daniel, the Son of Thos by his Wife Abigail, Dec., 
1750. 

David the Son of Thos by his wife Abigail, Oct. 15, 1752. 

Edward Newton, son of I. Newton, at home, sick, March 9, 1830. 

Hannah, Chield of Thorns by his wife Abigail, May 14, 1749. 

Mary the Daughter of Thos. by his wife Abigail, March 15, 1747. 

Newton, son of Newton & Rhoda, July 29, 1849. 

Rowena Augusta, dau of I. Newton, July 24, 1836. 

Sarah Ye Chield of Thorns by his wife Abigail, March 4, 1759. 

Sophia Wing, Rhoda Ellen, and Eli, children of Dr. Newton & Rhoda, 
Aug. 31, 1845. 

Stephen the Son of Thorns by his wife Abigail, May 18, 1755. 

Susan Eaton, dau. of Newton & Rhoda, June 26, 1853. 
SPRAGUE, Paul the Chield of Noah Junr by his wife Mary at Mr. 

Ruggles Parish pr me I. H., March 1, 1767. 
STEDSON, The Children of Nathaniel, viz. — Parnol Mitchell, Eliza- 
beth, Nathaniel, Ansel, David, Sept. 30, 1787. 
STOODLEY, Polly, Joshua, Amey, Childr of Joshua & Amey, Aug. 1, 

1773. 
STUDSON, Cinthia, Child of Ruth & Nathaniel her Husband, Aug. 
1792. 

Joseph, Son of Charles & Bathsheba, Aug. 16, 1772. 
STURTEVANT, Samuel, Phebe, John Merchant, Nancy Pease, Childr 

of S. & L., 1808. 
STUTSON, Anne the Chield of Charles by his wife Barsheba, Aug. 19, 
1753. 

Charles the Chield of Charles by his wife Barsheba, July 13, 1755. 

Hannah the Chield of Charles by his wife Barshebah, Aug. 29, 1757. 

Rebecca the Chield of Charles by his wife Barshebah, Nov. 22, 1761. 

Thaddeus the Chield of Charles by his wife Barshebah, Sept. 2, 1764. 
SWAIN, Benjamin Freeman, Child of & Eliza, 1811. 

Isaac Young, Child of & Eliz., 1815. 

SWIFT, Charles, Child of Jireh & his wife, N. Bedford, 1802. 



390 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Eleanor Spooner, Child of Saml & , 1812. 

All the Children of Eleanor, — Susanh, Jesse, Lucy, 1804. 
Child of Saml & Eleanor, 1807. 

TERRENT, Chield to Alixandr by his Wife Mary, Aug. 13, 

1749. 
THACHER, Mary Ludlow, dau. of Isaiah C. and Elizabeth, June 7, 

1846. 
TILLY, Hannah, Child of John & Lucy, Aug., 1784. 
TINKHAM, James son of James & Jane, July 29, 1849. 

Nelson Blake, Child of Reuben & Salvina (?), 1821. 
TOBEY, Abigail, Child of Tho & Keziah, 1895. 

Abigail, Daughter to Elisha by his wife Abigail, Sept. 17, 1749. 

Anne the Chield of Luke by his wife Anne, May 11, 1786. 

Elisha the Chield of Elisha, July 19, 1752. 

Elisha Son to Luke by his Wife Ann, Nov. 26, 1760. 

Elizabeth Child of Thomas & wife Abigail, 1789. 

Elizabeth, Child of Luke & Anna, Aug. 1, 1773. 

Isaac Son to Jonathan, Nov. 25, 1744. 

Isaac Smith, Child of Thos & Abigl, March 20, 1785. 

John the Child of Jonathan by his wife Elizabath, Aug. 7, 1742. 

John the Chield of Luke by his wife Ann, Oct. 21, 1758. 

Job Townsend Child of Smith & Rachel, April 1, 1812. 

Lemuel, Son of Thomas & Abigl, Sept., 1781. 

Luke the Chield of Luke by his wife Anne, May 9, 1756. 

Mary the Chield of Luke by his wife Anne, Feb. 14, 1768. 

Mathew, Son of Thomas & Abigail, Sept., 1787. 

Thomas, Child of Thorns & Abigl, March, 1783. 

Thorns Keziah & William the Children of Luke by his wife Abigail 
at his own hired House, April 10, 1754. 

William the Son of Luke by his wife Anne, Sept. 18, 1763. 
TUPPER, Elizabath The Chield of Eldr Nathan by his wife Experi- 
ence, Nov. 25, 1755. 

Hannah the Chield of Nathan by his wife Experience, April 2, 1749. 

Joannah Tuppr daughtr to Eldr Tupper was received into full com- 
munion with this Chh., Feb. 29, 1756. 

Medad Child of Nathan by his wife Experience, June 29, 1746. 

Martha Daughter to Deacon Nathan by his wife Experience, June 10, 
1744. 

Mary the Daughter of Eldr Nathan by his wife Experience, Jan. 27, 
1754. 

Mary the Chield of Nathan, June 30, 1751. 



Infant Baptisms 391 

Nathan Son of Nathan by his wife Experience, April 18, 1742. 
Nathan the Son of Nathan Eldr by his wife Experience, May 15, 1757. 
TURNER, George Dunham, son of John V., Sept. 4, 1840. 

WALLACE, John, Joseph, Elizabeth, Hannah, Abigail, Alice, Childr 

of Jona. (?) & Eunice, 1795. 
WASHBURN, Albert, Ezra Edson, Horace Wilber, sons of Ezra and 
Rosamond, July 7, 1850. 
Barsheba wife to Bezaleel was baptized, being upon a sick bed at her 
father's (Nathan) Hammond's House and Rose her sister was 
Baptized at the same time, making a profession of their faith. The 
Desires of both the above said Persons were propounded in the 
two Meeting-Houses the preceding Sabbath and Several of the 
Brethren of my Chh were present at the time of their admission & 
Signifyd their Consent in the Usual Way &c. nemine contradictine, 
March 2, 1767. 
Lucy Bond, dau. of Ezra E., Aug. 25, 1839. 
Sarah Allen, dau. of Ezra E., June 19, 1836. 
WATER, William Bradford, Thomas Allen, Children of Eleazer, May 30, 

1824. 
WEEKS, Ansel Warren, Louisa, Children of Shubl & Eliza, 1807. 
WEST, Asenath, Daught of Timo & Loice, March, 1781. 

Jane, Nancy, Presbury, Else, Drusilla, of Timo & Loice, May, 1780. 
WHITE, Samuel the Son of Samuel, of Ye other Parish, by his wife 

Elizabath, Nov. 1, 1747. 
WHITMORE, Betty, Daughter of Richard & Deborah, July, 1777. 

Sara Vaun, Welthy, Deborah, Richard, Childr, May 27, 1776. 
WHITTEMORE, Benjamin, Child of Richard & Deborah, July, 1782. 
Carolina. Child of Richd & Eliz: 1815. 

Eunice, Hariot, Mary Hammond, Childr of Richard & Eliza, 1807. 
Jane, Child of Richard & Eliz: 1790. 
Jane Goodspeed, Child of Richard & Deborah, July, 1780. 
WHITRIDGE, Joannah, the Daughter of Thomas by his wife Hannah, 

Sept. 8, 1746. 
WICKS, Abiel, Townsend Child of Shubl & Elizabeth, 1807. 

WILBUR, ■ the Chield of John, May, 1752. 

WING, Hannah, Child of Jonathan & Hanah, Oct., 1777. 
Hannah Wing, Wife to Jonathan, June 13, 1773. 
Wyart, Moses, Elizabeth, Mary, Childr of Js & Hannah his Wife, 

WINSLOW, Dorcas the Chield of John by his wife, July 13, 1766. 
Noah the Chield of Enoch by his wife Sarah, Aug. 2, 1767. 



392 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Thankful the Child of Thorns by his wife Rebecca, June 22, 1746. 
Daughter to Thomas, March 9, 1748. 

YOUNG, Anna, Rebekah ( ?), and Freeman, Childr of Rekebah, Widow, 

Sept. 3, 1780. 
Eleanor, Sarah, Mary, Hannah, Solomon, John, Zaccheus Mead, 

Children of Solomon & Hannah, March 20, 1774. 
Hannah, an adult, wife of Solomon, Oct. 25, 1772. 
Martha Olena, dau. of Henry, Nov. 13, 1833. 

The following negroes are recorded as having been baptized: 

Cyrus, Lot, Children of Toby & , May 27, 1776. 

Guinea, Servant of Mr. LeBaron, Aug. 4, 1775. 

Thomas, Son of Jack & Sarah, April, 14, 1776. 

Violeta the Child of the Negro Woman Ann " Church, " Jan. 16, 1742-3. 

William, Son of Toby, & Hannah his Wife, Oct. 26, 1777. 

2. MARRIAGES 

The record books of the Congregational Church show the following 
marriages during the years 1772 to 1864. Compiled from lists furnished 
by Lemuel LeBaron Dexter, Church Clerk. For the minister who 
officiated, refer to the list at the head of the section Baptisms, just pre- 
ceding. 

AKEN, Abby C. of Fairhaven and S. Bartlett Simmons of Newport, 

R. L, Nov. 25, 1863. 
ALLEN, James of Fairhaven and Mary B. Hammond, Apr. 14, 1842. 

Joseph M. C. of London, Eng. and Sylvia Mendall, Sept. 29, 1839. 
AMES, Mary T. and Caleb T. Jenny, Oct., 1832. 

Nathaniel F. and Mary C. Townsend, Oct. 9, 1842. 
ATSATT, Cynthia and George Barrows, July, 1824. 

John T. and Mary Bolles, Nov. 17, 1835. 

Mary H. and Isaiah Purrington, July 1, 1838. 

Phillip and Louise Levitt, 1807. 
AVERY, Deborah and Wyatt Snow, July 30, 1837. 

BACON, Benjamin and Patience Crosby, 1827. 

Deborah and Walter J. Heyer, July 26, 1832. 

Elizabeth and Hunneman Baker, Mar. 3, 1839. 

Selina F. and Rev. Leander Cobb of Sippican, Nov. 21, 1850. 
BAKER, Hunneman and Elizabeth Bacon, Mar, 3, 1839. 



Marriages 393 

BARNEY, George and Joanna Snow, 1807. 
BARROWS, Ebenezer and Mary Freeman, July, 1820. 

George and Cynthia Atsatt, July, 1824. 

Hannah and Clemant Briggs, 1808. 

Lucy and Alden Dexter, 1811. 

Lucy Clarke and William Ellis, Sept. 28, 1840. 

Sarah and Josiah Sears, Jr., of Dartmouth, Sept. 10, 1835. 

Thomas of Brooklyn, N. Y. and Lucy Bond Washburn, Oct. 1, 1859. 
BARSTOW, Benjamin and Rebekah Hammond, 1800. 

Benjamin F. and Sarah F. Leach, May 12, 1834. 

Caroline and Frederic W. Russell, Oct. 27, 1842. 

Elizabeth P. and Charles D. Hall, Nov. 27, 1853. 

George and Sally Barstow, 1801. 

Georgianna and Philander D. Leonard, Nov. 1, 1854. 

Henry and Mary Southworth, Jan. 2, 1842. 

Jane and Daniel B. Lovering, Dec. 30, 1805. 

John and Diana Bolls, Nov., 1825. 

Richard and Mrs. Lurana K. Hammond, Mar. 5, 1860. 

Sally and George Barstow, 1801. 

Sarah and Rev. Wilbur Johnson of New Milford, Pa., Sept. 1, 1864. 

Sophia and James Hezekiah Purrington, Sept. 10, 1863. 

Susan C. and David H. Cannon, May 18, 1851. 

Zaccheus M. and Mary J. Snow, July 31, 1853. 
BARTLETT, Andrew and Eliza Hammond, 1797. 
BASSET, Abigail West and Henry Taylor, Jan. 21, 1819. 
BATES, Elizabeth and Ebenezer Cannon, July, 1820. 

Louisa T. and Welcome Payne of Freetown, Aug. 10, 1834. 
BEALLS, Charles C. and Martha C. Weaver, May 11, 1843. 
BEARD, Hannah and James Purrington, Jan. 29, 1827. 
BENNET, Thomas, 2nd and Sophia H. Stacy, Dec. 7, 1853. 
BESSEY, Loise and William Parker, Dec. 25, 1807. 
BEWEL, Edward and Clarissa Dexter, July, 1823. 
BINDEN, Alfred H. of Woburn and Mary F. Sturtevant, Sept. 24, 1863. 
BISHOP, Alvin and Melintha Sheraman, Feb. 1795. 
BLACK, Caleb and Betsey Hammond, Feb. 9, 1794. 
BOLLES, Joshua and Rachel M. Kinney, Feb. 7, 1843. 

Mary and John T. Atsatt, Nov. 17, 1835. 
BOLLS, Diana and John Barstow, Nov., 1825. 

Mary and Elisha Tinkham, 1825. 
BOWLES, Ann F. and Jesse H. Cowing, Apr. 5, 1852. 

Charity and Ansel Gibbs, 1828. 
Hannah and Isaac Bowles, 1798. 



394 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Isaac and Hannah Bowles, 1798. 

Loise and Joseph Leavitt, June, 1794. 

Zura and Phineas Hillar, March, 1812. 
BRAILEY, Julia Ann and John F. Jolls, Aug. 25, 1834. 
BRIGGS, Anna and John Ellis, Aug. 1794. 

Clemant and Hannah Barrows, 1808. 

Elisha and Mary Bolls, 1825. 

George and Lois Southworth, Feb. 17, 1833. 

Nathan and Mary Davis, Oct. 26, 1823. 
BROWN, Julia M. and Isaac O. Pierce, Sept. 4, 1854. 
BROWNEL, Hannah S. and Benjamin P. Dexter, 1826. 
BROWNELL, Alexander and Polly Hatch, 1810. 
BUELL, Sarah J. and John II. Meigs, June 19, 1853. 
BURGES, Joanna and Israel Hammond, Nov. 15, 1831. 

CANNON, Arvin and Sarah Ann LeBaron, June 12, 1834. 

David H. and Susan C. Barstow, May 18, 1851. 

Ebenezer and Elizabeth Bates, July, 1820. 

Eunice and Stephen Snow, Oct., 1826. 

Halet and Eliza W. Harlow, Apr. 13, 1845. 

Hallet M. and Mary A. Hammond, Oct. 27, 1834. 

Henry N. of New Bedford and Sophia Hammond, July, 1817. 

Martha and John P. Carr, Sept. 21, 1843. 

Melintha and Lot Jones, Sept. 19, 1833. 

Silence and William Merrithew, July 13, 1834. 

Thomas Jackson and Eliza Jane Purrington, Aug. 22, 1864. 

Watson and Deborah S. Rogers, May 1, 1834. 
CARR, John P. and Martha Cannon, Sept. 21, 1843. 
CARVER, Lydia and Jesse Swift, Oct. 26, 1823. 
CATHAWAY, William and Sarah Smith (Coloured), Aug. 4, 1836. 
CATHEL, James and Jane Dexter, 1810. 
CLAP, Sukey and Rev. Samuel Mead, 1797. 
CLARK, Sarah and Andrew Southworth, Aug. 1, 1810. 

Thomas, of Plymouth and Ruth Hovey, June, 1794. 
CLARKE, Mary and Hallet Winslow of Dartmouth, Mar. 28, 1837. 

Nathaniel and Susan M. Dean Apr. 30, 1837. 

Watson C. and Drucilla H. Dexter, Jan. 31, 1837. 
COBB, Carrie B. of Hartford, Me. and William G. Cowell, July 10, 
1859. 

Rev. Leander of Sippican and Selina F. Bacon, Nov. 21, 1850. 
COLEMAN, Andrew of Nantucket and Mary Angie Jones, Nov. 24, 
1859. (Thanksgiving.) 



Marriages 395 

Lucy and Charles Sherman, Dec. 23, 1850. 
COLLINS, E. H. and A. F. Way, July 17, 1853. 
COMPTON, David Linton Little and Anna Dexter, Feb. 30, 1804. 
COWELL, Hannah and James Hammond, May 12, 1836. 

William G. and Carrie B. Cobb, of Hartford, Me., July 10, 1859. 
COWING, Experience and Joseph Hathaway, 1901. 

Jesse H. and Ann F. Bowles, Apr. 5, 1852. 
CROSBY, Mrs. Emeline and Joshua Cushing, Nov. 25, 1849. 

Nathan and Mary Holmes, Jan. 12, 1819. 

Patience and Benjamin Bacon, 1827. 
CROSS, Franklin and Catharine Leach, Apr. 18, 1850. 
CUSHING, Mrs. Abby and William Robinson, May 15, 1854. 

Mrs. Alice and Josiah Sparrow, Apr. 16, 1850. 

Elizabeth and Ebenezer Holmes, Jr., June 30, 1839. 

Joshua and Mrs. Emiline Crosby, Nov. 25, 1849. 

Nathaniel and Alice Hammond, 1805. 

Phebe and Francis Nie, Dec. 1810. 
CUSHMAN, Acenath and Leonard Hammond, 1813. 

Deborah and Holder Gelat, Nov. 1825. 

Ezekiel and Abigail Tobey, 1792. 

Hannah and Eben Hathaway, 1808. 

Judi and Abishai Rogers, Feb. 23, 1806. 

Mary and Moors Rogers, 1798. 

Zenas of Middleboro' and Abby Morse, Dec. 31, 1843. 

DAVIS, Mary and Nathan Briggs, Oct. 26, 1823. 

Moses H. and Mary Hammond, July 19, 1832. 
DEAN, Noah and Roxa Haskiel, March 19, 1813. 

Susan M. and Nathaniel Clarke, Apr. 30, 1837. 
DELANO, Easter and Abraham Tinkham, 1800. 

Harper and Susanah Hammond, June, 1803. 
DEWOLF, Daniel A. and Mrs. Abby G. Stetson, Dec. 31, 1846. 
DEXTER, Alden and Lucy Barrows, 1811. 

Anna and Abner Hall, 1820. 

Anna and David Linton, Little Compton, Feb. 30, 1804. 

Anna and James Snow, Dec, 1795. 

Benjamin P. and Hannah S. Brownel, 1826. 

Caleb and Lydia Hillar, 1821. 

Caroline and Daniel Smith of New Bedford, Jan. 1, 1840. 

Clarissa and Edward Bewel, July, 1823. 

Drucilla H. and Watson C. Clarke, Jan. 31, 1837. 

Ebenezer and Desiah Snow, Dec, 1795. 



396 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Ephraim and Arey Snow, Oct., 1801. 

Gideon and Mary Dexter, Sept., 1804. 

Hannah and Eleazer Waterman, Feb. 27, 1831. 

James and Sally Ellis, Jan. 21, 1819. 

Jane and James Cathel, 1810. 

Kezia and Ebenezer Holmes, Nov., 1805. 

Lurania and Ivory Snow, 1828. 

Martha M. and Noah Hammond, June 2, 1861. 

Martha Mendall and Nathan Smith, Oct. 15, 1861. 

Martha and Prince Snow, June, 1794. 

Mary and Gideon Dexter, Sept., 1804. 

Reuben and Dolly Tobey, Feb., 1796. 

Sarah and Josiah Macomber, 1797. 
DOTY, Sophia A. and Nathaniel Freeman, Apr. 25, 1833. 
DUNHAM, Sophronia and John V. Turner of New Bedford, July 1, 

1832. 
DURFEY, Rachel and Cyrus Hathaway, 1801. 

EATON, Solomon K. and Maria R. Rogers, Dec. 29, 1833. 
EDWARDS, Jane of Falmouth and Edward Oliver of New Bedford, 

May 22, 1839. 
ELLIS, Cordelia M. of Rochester and Charles H. Sturtevant, Feb. 11, 
1863. 

Cornelius and Lydia Gibbs, 1830. 

John and Anna Briggs, Aug., 1794. 

Mary and Harvey Fairbanks, 1816. 

Nathan and Polly Shearman, 1828. 

Sally and James Dexter, Jan. 21, 1819. 

William and Lucy Clarke Barrows, Sept. 28, 1840. 

FAIRBANKS, Harvey and Mary Ellis, 1816. 

FAUNCE, Lydia Elizabeth of Plymouth and James William Tinkham, 

Dec. 12, 1861. 
FOSTER, Shillings and Sarah Freeman, Aug., 1794. 
FOWLER, Garrett and Eliza Snow, Oct., 1801. 
FREEMAN, Charles Bruce and Nabby Haskiel, 1798. 

Mary and Ebenezer Barrows, July, 1820. 

Nathaniel and Sophia A. Doty, Apr. 25, 1833. 

Olivia H. and George Purrington, Jr., Oct. 1, 1858. 

Sally W. and James Shaw, Aug., 1820. 

Sarah and Shillings Foster, Aug., 1794. 

Sylvia A. and Abner Harlow, Nov. 6, 1842. 



Marriages 397 

FULLER, Eben and Olive Standish, 1809. 

GELAT, Holder and Deborah Cushman, Nov. 1825. 
GIBBS, Ansel and Charity Bowles, 1828. 

Lydia and Cornelius Ellis, 1830. 
GIFFORD, Lydia of New Bedford and Samuel Haskins of New Bed- 
ford, Feb. 17, 1833. 

Roby and Matthew Mayhew, June 28, 1846. 
GOODSPEED, Theodore W. and Hannah Snow, Nov. 25, 1852. 

HALL, Abner and Anna Dexter, 1820. 

Charles D. and Elizabeth P. Barstow, Nov. 27, 1853. 

David and Hannah Hammond, July, 1817. 

Emeline and Daniel D. L. Purrington, July 3, 1842. 

Emily F. and Wyat Snow, July 7, 1850. 

Laura Ann and Joseph R. Taber, Jr., Sept. 28, 1843. 

Martin and Arethusa Southworth, Feb. 22, 1835. 
HAMOND, Mary and Mr. Potter of New Bedford, 1821. 

Sophia and Henry Cannon, July, 1817. 

Susanah and Harper Delano, June, 1803. 
HAMMOND, Abigail and Alfred Kindrick, 1805. 

Adaline and Edward Simmons, 1830. 

Alice and Nathaniel Cushing, 1805. 

Amitti B. and Lucinda White, Oct. 26, 1823. 

Betsey and Caleb Black, Feb. 9, 1794. 

Betsey and Samuel Purrington, Jan. 29, 1827. 

Debby and Asa Swift, 1797. 

Eliza and Andrew Bartlett, 1797. 

Eliza and Ebenezer Rogers, Nov., 1795. 

Eliza and Richard Whittemore, 1799. 

Elizabeth and Lazarus LeBaron, July 27, 1845. 

Eunice and Seth Haskell, 1812. 

George F. and Abby M. Sears, June 29, 1847. 

Hannah and David Hall, July, 1817. 

Israel and Joanna Burges, July, 1831. 

James and Hannah Cowell, May 12, 1836. 

Jane E. and William Taylor, Sept. 2, 1851. 

Leonard and Acenath Cushman, 1813. 

Mrs. Lurana K. and Richard Barstow, Mar. 5, 1860. 

Mary and Moses H. Davis, July 19, 1832. 

Mary A. and Hallet M. Cannon, Oct. 27, 1834. 

Mary B. and James Allen of Fairhaven, Apr. 14, 1842. 



398 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

Nathaniel, Esq., and Priscilla Hammond, Oct. 30, 1803. 

Noah and Abigail Palmer, Sept., 1804. 

Noah and Martha M. Dexter, June 2, 1861. 

Priscilla and Nathaniel Hammond, Esq., Oct. 30, 1803. 

Priscilla S. and Lazarus LeBaron, July, 1816. 

Rebekah and Benjamin Barstow, 1800. 

Roger and Olive Hovey, 1794. 

Ruth Ann of New Bedford and George R. Tabor, Nov. 28, 1850. 

Waytt and Mary LeBaron, March 12, 1812. 
HARLOW, Abner and Sylvia A. Freeman, Nov. 6, 1842. 

Betsey and Nathaniel Harlow, June 15, 1824. 

Eliza W. and Halet Cannon, Apr. 13, 1845. 

Nathaniel and Betsey Harlow, June 15, 1824. 

Nathaniel and Silva Lincoln, Aug., 1826. 
HASKELL, Seth and Eunice Hammond, 1812. 

Nabby and Charles Bruce Freeman, 1798. 
HASKIEL, Roxa and Noah Dean, Mar. 19, 1813. 
HASKINS, Samuel and Lydia Gifford, both of New Bedford, Feb. 17, 
1833. 

Samuel of New Bedford and Lydia Gifford of New Bedford, Feb. 17, 
1833. 

William H. and Lydia Pierce, Jan. 26, 1852. 
HATCH, Nancy and Thomas Snow, Dec. 25, 1807. 

Polly and Alexander Brownell, 1810. 
HATHAWAY, Cyrus and Rachel Durfey, 1801. 

Eben and Hannah Cushman, 1808. 

Joseph and Experience Cowing, 1801. 

Royal of Newbedford and Anna W T ing, Dec. 29, 1805. 
HEYER, W T alter J. and Deborah Bacon, July 26, 1832. 
HILLAR, Lydia and Caleb Dexter, 1821. 

Nathaniel and Betsey Snow, Jan. 7, 1817. 

Phineas and Zura Bowles, March, 1812. 
HOLMES, Charles Albert of Taunton and Mary Loring Pratt of Carver 
at Dr. Putnam's in Middleboro, Nov. 22, 1863. 

Ebenezer and Kezia Dexter, Nov., 1805. 

Ebenezer, Jr. and Elizabeth Cushing, June 30, 1839. 

Lydia and Lemuel LeBaron, Sept. 22, 1836. 

Mary and Nathan Crosby, Jan. 12, 1819. 

Mary of Sippican and Joseph Meigs, Jr., Dec. 19, 1833. 
HOWSE, Abel and Deborah Ruggles, Jan. 1, 1806. 
HOWSE, Hannah and Noah Sturtevant, 1830. 
HOVEY, Olive and Roger Hammond, 1794. 



Marriages 399 

Ruth and Thomas Clark, of Plymouth, June, 1794. 
HUBBARD, Philip G. of Brimfield and Elizabeth LeBaron, Sept. 9 
1834. 

JENNEY, Caleb T. and Mary T. Ames, Oct., 1832. 
JEWETT, Maximillian and Almira Tinkham, Oct. 10, 1824. 
JOHNSON, Rev. Wilbur of New Milford, Pa. and Sarah Barstow, Sept. 

1, 1864. 
JOLLS, John F. and Julia Ann Brailey, Aug. 25, 1834. 
JONES, Lot and Melintha Cannon, Sept. 19, 1833. 
JONES, Mary Angie and Andrew Coleman of Nantucket, Nov. 24, 1859. 

(Thanksgiving.) 

KINDRICK, Alfred and Abigail Hammond, 1805. 
KINNEY, Rachel M. and Joshua Bolles, Feb. 7, 1843. 
KNOBB, William and Elizabeth Phelps, March 14, 1813. 

LACY, Lois and Henry T. Young, 1826. 

LEACH, Catharine and Franklin Cross, Apr. 18, 1850. 

Sarah F. and Benjamin F. Barstow, May 12, 1834. 
LEAVITT, Joseph and Loise Bowles, June, 1794. 
LEAVIT, Mrs. Sarah S. of Fairhaven and Capt. Levi Snow, Feb. 4, 1855. 
LeBARON, Elizabeth and Philip G. Hubbard of Brimfield, Sept. 9, 
1834. 

Elizabeth and William LeBaron, 1810. 

Enoch H. and Florilla Taber, Oct. 18, 1840. 

Jane and Thomas Saunders, July 3, 1838. 

John and Abigail Phillips, 1809. 

John A. and Harriet Wing, July, 1817. 

Lazarus and Elizabeth Hammond, July 27, 1845. 

Lazarus and Priscilla S. Hammond, July, 1816. 

Lemuel and Lydia Holmes, Sept. 22, 1836. 

Mary and Wyatt Hammond, March 12, 1812. 

Sarah Ann and Arvin Cannon, June 12, 1834. 

William and Elizabeth LeBaron, 1810. 
LEONARD, John H. and Sarah A. Wasbhurn, Dec. 25, 1853. 

Philander D. and Georgianna Bastow, Nov. 1, 1854. 
LEVITT, Louise and Phillip Atsatt, 1807. 
LEWIS, Charlotte M. and Gideon B. Spooner, June 13, 1852. 
LINCOLN, Kezia and Thomas Tobey, Aug. 1794. 

Silva and Nathaniel Harlow, Aug. 1826. 
LOBDELL, George W. and Lucy LeB. Meigs, Dec. 26, 1848. 



400 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

LORING, Mary and Weston Robinson of Fairhaven, Apr. 25, 1832. 
LOVERING, Daniel B. and Jane Barstow, Dec. 30, 1805. 
LUCE, Abby J. and Humphrey L. Sherman, Oct. 27, 1833. 
LUMBARD, John and Susan E. Spooner of Fairhaven, Nov. 19, 1854. 

McCARTY, Ellen and Thomas James Rogers, Sept. 20, 1863. 

MACOMBER, Josiah and Sarah Dexter, 1797. 

MANTER, Peter and Charlotte Nye Nov. 7, 1852. 

MARSHALL, Rebecca and Nicholas Taber, Nov. 23, 1794. 

MARTIN, Seth and Mary Peckham, June, 1832. 

MATTHEWS, Richard J. and Mary Smith (coloured), May 24, 1832. 

MAYHEW, Mathew and Sally A. LeBaron, July, 1816. 

Mathew and Roby Gifford, June 28, 1846. 
MEAD, Rev. Samuel and Sukey Clap, 1797. 
MEIGS, John H. and Sarah J. Buell, June 19, 1853. 

Joseph, Jr. and Mary Holmes 6f Sippican, Dec. 19, 1833. 

Lucy LeB. and George \\. Lobdell, Dec. 26, 1848. 
MEIGGS, Ephraim and Clarissa Rogers, Aug. 23, 1824. 
MENDALL, Sylvia and Joseph M. C. Allen of London, Eng., Sept. 29, 

1839. 
MERRIHEW, Edmund and Charity Simmons, Jan. 8, 1838. 

Elias and Mary Ann Nye, Nov. 11, 1838. 

Mary B. and Joseph W'ilson, Mar. 16, 1837. 

William and Silence Cannon, July 13, 1834. 
MORSE, Abby and Zenas Cushman of Middleboro', Dec. 31, 1843. 

Sarah D. and Calvin Rollins Weaver, both of Wareham, May 2, 
1861. 
MYRICKS, Phebe and Daniel Russell of Dartmouth, 1803. 

NIE, Francis and Phebe Cushing, Dec, 1810. 

William and Nancy Snow, Dec. 31, 1817. 
NORTON, Eben of Farmington, Me. and Lizzie H. Shaw (dau. of 

James), Apr. 4, 1860. 
NYE, Charlotte and Peter Manter, Nov. 7, 1852. 

Ebenezer of Falmouth and Koria Tobey, Jan. 1, 1806. 

Gilbert M. and Dorcas Purrington, Sept. 17, 1854. 

Mary Ann and Elias Merrithew, Nov. 11, 1838. 

OLIVER, Edward of New Bedford and Jane Edwards of Falmouth, 
May 22, 1839. 

PALMER, Abigail and Noah Hammond, Sept., 1804. 



Marriages 401 

PARKER, William and Loise Bessey, Dec. 25, 1807. 
PARLOW, Ebenezer and Drusilla Randall, 1799. 
PAYNE, Phebe V. and Job P. Rounseville, Jan. 19, 1854. 

Welcome of Freetown and Louisa T. Bates, Aug. 10, 1834. 
PECKHAM, Mary and Seth Martin, June, 1832. 
PEASE, Lydia and Samuel Sturtevant, 1799. 
PEIRCE, Eliza and Ansel Weeks, Nov. 25, 1835. 

Lydia and William H. Haskins, Jan. 26, 1852. 
PHELPS, Elizabeth and William Knobb, March 14, 1813. 
PHILLIPS, Abigail and John LeBaron, 1809. 
PIERCE, Isaac O. and Julia M. Brown, Sept. 4, 1854. 

William N. and Eliza J. Snow, Apr. 30, 1854. 
POTTER, Mr. of New Bedford and Mary Hamond, 1821. 
PRATT, Mary Loring of Carver and Charles Albert Holmes of Taunton, 

at Dr. Putnam's in Middleboro, Nov. 22, 1863. 
PURRINGTON, Daniel D. L. and Emeline Hall, July 3, 1842. 

Dorcas and Gilbert M. Nye, Sept. 17, 1854. 

Eliza Jane and Thomas Jackson Cannon, Aug. 22, 1864. 

George, Jr. and Olivia H. Freeman, Oct. 1, 1858. 

Hattie A. and Edgar S. Silva, June 8, 1861. 

Isaiah and Mary H. Atsatt, July 1, 1838. 

James Hezekiah and Sophia Barstow, Sept. 10, 1863. 

James and Hannah Beard, Jan. 29, 1827. 

John and Minerva White, Feb. 27, 1840. 

Samuel and Betsy Hammond, Jan. 29, 1827. 

RANDALL, Drusilla and Ebenezer Parlow, 1799. 
RANSOM, James B. of Carver and Eunice Snow, Feb. 7, 1841. 
ROBINSON, Weston of Fairhaven and Mary Loring, Apr. 25, 1832. 

William and Mrs. Abby Cushing, May 15, 1854. 
ROGERS, Abishai and Judi Cushman, Feb. 23, 1806. 

Betsey and Eli Soper, 1800. 

Clarissa and Ephraim Meiggs, Aug. 23, 1824. 

Deborah S. and Watson Cannon, May 1, 1834. 

Ebenezer and Eliza Hammond, Nov., 1795. 

Ebenezer and Rebecca Mayhew, Nov. 15, 1831. 

Maria R. and Solomon K. Eaton, Dec. 29, 1833. 

Moors and Mary Cushman, 1798. 

Thomas James and Ellen McCarty, Sept. 20, 1863. 
ROUNSEVILLE, Job P. and Phebe V. Payne, Jan. 19, 1854. 
RUGGLES, Deborah and Abel House, Jan 1, 1806. 
RUSSEL, Daniel of Dartmouth and Phebe Myricks, 1803. 



402 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

RUSSELL, Frederic W. and Caroline Barstow, Oct. 27, 1842. 

SAUNDERS, Thomas and Jane LeBaron, July 3, 1838. 
SEARS, Abby M. and George F. Hammond, June 29, 1847. 

Josiah, Jr. of Dartmouth and Sarah Barrows, Sept. 10, 1835. 
SHAW, James and Sally W. Freeman, Aug., 1820. 

Lizzie A., (dau. of James) and Eben Norton of Farmington, Me., 
Apr. 4, 1860. 
SHEARMAN, Melintha and Elvin Bishop, Feb., 1795. 

Polly and Nathan Ellis, 1828. 
SHERMAN, Charles and Lucy Coleman, Dec. 23, 1850. 

Humphrey L. and Abby J. Luce, Oct. 27, 1833. 

Sarah M. and Charles W. Smith, Oct. 27, 1853. 
SILVA, Edgar S. and Hattie A. Purrington, June 8, 1861. 
SIMMONS, Charity and Edmund Merrihew, Jan. 8, 1838. 

Edward and Adaline Hammond, 1830. 

S. Bartlett of Newport, R. I. and Abby C. Aken, of Fairhaven, Nov. 
25, 1863. 
SMITH, Charles W. and Sarah M. Sherman, Oct. 27, 1853. 

Daniel of New Bedford and Caroline Dexter, Jan. 1, 1840. 

Mary and Richard J. Matthews (Coloured), May 24, 1832. 

Nathan and Martha Mendall Dexter, Oct. 15, 1861. 

Sally and John Wing, 1797. 

Sarah and William Cathaway (Coloured), Aug. 4, 1836. 
SNOW, Arey and Ephraim Dexter, Oct., 1801. 

Betsey and Nathaniel Hillar, Jan. 7, 1817. 

Desiah and Ebenezer Dexter, Dec, 1795. 

Eliza and Garrett Fowler, Oct., 1801. 

Eliza J. and William N. Pierce, Apr. 30, 1854. 

Eunice and James B. Ransom of Carver, Feb. 7, 1841. 

Hannah and Joshua Snow, Oct., 1792. 

Hannah and Theodore W. Goodspeed, Nov. 25, 1852. 

Ivory and Lurania Dexter, 1828. 

Ivory and Martha Snow, Nov. 17, 1833. 

James and Anna Dexter, Dec, 1795. 

Joanna and George Barney, 1807. 

Joseph and Rebekah Snow, Feb. 2, 1796. 

Joshua and Hannah Snow, Oct., 1792. 

Capt. Levi and Mrs. Sarah S. Leavit of Fairhaven, Feb. 4, 1855. 

Martha and Ivory Snow, Nov. 17, 1833. 

' Mary J. and Zaccheus M. Barstow, July 31, 1853. 
Nancy and William Nie, Dec. 31, 1817. 



Marriages 403 

Nathaniel and Eliza Wallace, 1803. 

Prince and Martha Dexter, June, 1794. 

Rachel and Wyatt Snow, Sept. 9, 1824. 

Rekekah and Joseph Snow, Feb. 2, 1796. 

Stephen and Eunice Cannon, Oct., 1826. 

Thomas and Nancy Hatch, Dec. 25, 1807. 

Wyat and Emily F. Hall, July 7, 1850. 

Wyatt and Deborah Avery, July 30, 1837. 

Wyatt and Rachel Snow, Sept. 9, 1824. 
SPARROW, Josiah and Mrs. Alice Cushing, Apr. 16, 1850. 
SOPER, Eli and Betsey Rogers, 1800. 
SPOONER, Gideon B. and Charlotte M. Lewis, June 13, 1852. 

Susan E. of Fairhaven and John Lumbard, Nov. 19, 1854. 
SOUTHWORTH, Andrew and Sarah Clark, Aug. 1, 1810. 

Arethusa and Martin Hall, Feb. 22, 1835. 

Lois and George Briggs, Feb. 17, 1833. 

Mary and Henry Barstow, Jan. 2, 1842. 

Sarah and Josiah D. Sturtevant, 1833. 

Sarah H. and Alfred M. Wright of Fairhaven, Feb. 17, 1833. 
STACEY, Sophia H. and Thomas Bennet, 2nd, Dec. 7, 1853. 
STANDISH, Olive and Eben Fuller, 1809. 
STEPHENS, Timothy and Waty Tabor, March, 1804. 
STETSON, Mrs. Abby G. and Daniel A. De Wolf, Dec. 31, 1846. 
STEVENS, Charles of Boston and Thankful J. Taber, Mar. 1, 

1855. 
STURTEVANT, Charles H. and Cordelia M. Ellis of Rochester, Feb. 11. 
1863. 

Josiah D. and Sarah Southworth, 1833. 

Mary F. and Alfred H. Binden of Woburn, Sept. 24, 1863. 

Noah and Hannah Howse, 1830. 

Samuel and Lydia Pease, 1799. 

Samuel, Jr. and Mrs. Mary B. Swift of Rochester, July 31, 1859. 
SWIFT, Asa and Debby Hammond, 1797. 

Jesse and Lydia Carver, Oct. 26, 1823. 

Mrs. Mary B. of Rochester and Samuel Sturtevant, Jr., July 31, 
1859 



TABER, Florilla and Enoch H. LeBaron, Oct. 18, 1840. 
Joseph R., Jr. and Laura Ann Hall, Sept. 28, 1843. 
Nicholas and Rebecca Marshall, Nov. 23, 1794. 
Thankful J. and Charles Stevens of Boston, Mar. 1, 1855. 



404 Mattapoisett and Old Rochester 

George R. and Ruth Ann Hammond of New Bedford, Nov. 28, 
1850. 

Waty and Timothy Stephens, March, 1804. 
TAYLOR, Henry and Abigail West Basset, Jan. 21, 1819. 

William and Jane E. Hammond, Sept. 2, 1851. 
TINKHAM, Abraham and Easter Delano, 1800. 

Almira and Maximillian Jewett, Oct. 10, 1824. 

James William and Lydia Elizabeth Faunce of Plymouth, Dec. 12, 
1861. y 

TOBEY, Abigail and Ezekiel Cushman, 1^92. 

Abigail and Francis Nye, 1816. 

Dolly and Reuben Dexter, Feb., 1796. 

Eliz and Shubaal Wicks, 1798. 

Isaac and Rachel Townsend, 1809. 

Koria and Ebenezer Nye of Falmouth, Jan. 1, 1806. 

Thomas and Kezia Lincoln, Aug., 1794. 
TOWNSEND, Mary C. and Nathaniel F. Ames, Oct. 9, 1842. 

Rachel and Isaac Tobey, 1809. 
TRIPP, Emily D. and Samuel Yates, Aug. 4, 1834. 
TURNER, John V. of New Bedford and Sophronia Dunham, July 1, 
1832. 

WALLACE, Eliza and Nathaniel Snow, 1803. 

WASBHURN, Lucy Bond and Thomas Barrows of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
Oct. 1, 1859. 

Sarah A. and John H. Leonard, Dec. 25, 1853. 
WATERMAN, Eleazer and Hannah Dexter, Feb. 27, 1831. 
WAY, A. F. and E. H. Collins, July 17, 1853. 

WEAVER, Calvin Rollins and Sarah D. Morse, both of Wareham, May 
2, 1861. 

Martha C. and Charles G. Bealls, May 11, 1843. 
WEEKS, Ansel and Eliza Peirce, Nov. 25, 1835. 
WHITE, Lucinda and Amitti B. Hammond, Oct. 26, 1823. 

Minerva and John Purrington, Feb. 27, 1840. 

William S. of Boston and Eliza Ann Willis, Mar. 18, 1834. 
WHITTEMORE, Richard and Eliza Hammond, 1799. 
WICKS, Shubaal and Eliz Tobey, 1798. 

WILLIS, Eliza Ann and William S. White of Boston, Mar. 18, 1834. 
WILSON, Joseph and Mary B. Merrithew, Mar. 16, 1837. 
WING, Anna and Royal Hathaway of Newbedford, Dec. 29, 1805. 

Harriet and John A. LeBaron, July, 1817. 

John and Sally Smith, 1797. 



Marriages 405 

WINSLOW, Hallet of Dartmouth and Mary Clarke, Mar. 28, 1837. 
WRIGHT, Alfred M. of Fairhaven and Sarah H. Southworth, Feb. 17, 
1833. 

YATES, Samuel and Emily D. Tripp, Aug. 4, 1834. 
YOUNG, Henry T. and Lois Lacy, 1826. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Note. — This index does not include the names found in the appen- 
dix matter, entitled, "Extracts from the Records." Most of these 
names are already in alphabetical order. 



Achawanamett 9 

Adams, Jedediah 194 

John Quincy 231 

Samuel 126 

After the Revolution 143-165 

Agnew, Rev. Mr. 202 

Alabama 306 

Allen, Betsey 260 

Eleazer 131 

Elizabeth 208 

Elizabeth Robbins 247 

James 240 

Pliny A. 334 

Pliny A., Jr. 335 

Silas B. 2, 63, 149 

Weston 168 

Altamaha 306 

Ames, Deliverance 259 

Loring T. 307 

Prince 284 

Seth 260, 263 

Theodore C. 263, 268 

Thomas 260 

Thomas L. 256 

Andrews, Elisha 75 

S. M. 266 

Annable, Jonathan 131 

Samuel 131 

Annawan 297 

Anne 6 

Archer 5 

Arnold, Elizabeth 57, 74 

James 234 

Mary 49 

Rev. Samuel 44, 50, 52, 57, 

65, 72, 73, 74, 75, 109 



PAGES 

Arnold, Samuel, Jr. 44, 56, 57, 73, 
74 

Sarah 52, 74 

Ashley, Thomas 151 

Assessors' List, 1740 366-368 

Assessors' Rate Bill, 1776 360-363 
Atkinson, Edward 32, 338 

Atsatt, Charles F. 256 

Isaiah P. 275, 323, 325, 333, 
334 

J. Charles F. 325 

John 170, 171, 172, 173, 

262, 263, 321 

John T. 177, 185, 242, 294, 
322 

Philip 217, 262, 263 

Atsel or Atsatt, Lois 260 

Atsetts, Philip 261 

Atwood, John 6 

Averill, Rev. Alexander 266 

Awashonks 13, 14, 15, 17, 99 



B 



Babcock, Archdeacon Samuel 

J. 270 

Bachelor, Rev. Benjamin S. 266 

Backus, Elder 93 

Bacon, Benjamin 240, 321 

Francis E. 338 

Rev. Mr. 207 

Baker, Capt. 246 

Mr. 246 

Bannon, Alexander 307 

Barber, John Warner 159, 229 

Barlow, Aaron 37, 39, 41, 42, 

53, 56, 113, 197 



410 



Index 



PAGE3 

Barlow, Ebenezer 190, 192, 194, 209 
Edward F. 304, 307 

Elder 207, 217 

George 192, 196, 198 

Gideon B. 307 

Joseph 131, 191, 196 

M. 131 

Moses 38, 49, 51, 52, 56, 

114, 131, 189, 210 
Obed 204 

Reuben 131 

Seth 219 

Barnard, George M. 337 

Mrs. George M. 337 

George M., Jr. 212, 256, 323 
Henry 244 

Mary W. 338 

Barrows, Alpheus 272, 307 

Andrew J. 307 

Ebenezer 152, 263, 272 

Elisha 113, 114 

George 307 

Rev. Homer 233 

Isaac N. 240 

Barstow, Benjamin 239, 240, 284 

286, 321 

Benjamin, Jr. 113 

Benjamin, 2d 149, 178 

Benjamin, 3d 188 

Benjamin F. 271 

Charles B. 274 

Elijah W. 307 

Gideon 113, 240, 282, 286, 

294 

Gideon, Jr. 148, 220 

Henry 240, 286, 321, 322, 

334 

Hollen M. 335 

James 239, 240, 320 

John T. 304, 307 

Josiah M. 307 

Mary 256 

Nathan H. 184, 186, 188, 256, 

241, 286, 294, 305, 333 

Rogers L. 68, 112, 152, 168, 

181, 183, 185, 186, 240, 246, 

272, 273, 294. 314, 322, 339 

Solomon 307 

William 240, 282 

Wilson 48, 51, 68, 113, 149, 

169, 173, 180, 181, 183, 188, 



PAGES 

210,216,222,228,234,339, 

240, 280, 281, 294, 305, 317, 

321, 322, 332, 333, 334 

Wilson, Jr. 307 

Zaecheus 149, 232 

Zaecheus M. 240, 307, 322 

Bartlett, Benjamin 37, 56 

Doctor 250, 335 

Joseph 8, 38, 56 

Bass, Dr. 335 

Bassett, John 169 

Thomas 113, 148 

Thomas, Jr. 271 

Bates, Albert 272 

John 304, 307 

Joshua 263 

Joshua, T. T. 272 

Noble E. 113, 270, 271 

Salome E. 319 

Battel, Joseph 230 

Battelle, Mrs. 339 

Beals, Charles C. 240, 248 

Beck or Buck, Edmund 26 

Beck, Penney 260 

Beechcr, Henry Ward 211 

Beetle, Mrs. E. R. 318 

Beginnings of Rochester 

Town, 1679-1700 36-47 

Bennett, W T illiam 221 

Benson, John 73, 74, 113 

Joseph 100, 109, 114 

Besse, Arty 260 

Elizabeth 259 

Joshua 259 

Bessey, Nathan 219 

Bigelow, Rev. Andrew 148 

Rev. Jonathan 89, 91, 147, 

170, 172, 226, 235, 241 

Bisbe ... 113 

Bisbee, Rev. Frank A. 273 

Bisbee, Josiah 180 

"Black Frank" 19 

Blackmer, Frederick W. 268 

G. B. 149 

Garrison 57 

Joseph 113 

Peter 39, 41, 56, 57, 73, 75, 

112, 113 

Blaikie, W. G. 249 

Blaine, Walter E. 256 

Blakwell, Caleb 113 



Index 



411 



PAGES 

Blankenship, James 260 

James, Jr. 260 

Ruth 260 

Blankinship, Ichabod 2, 63 

James R. 306 

Bliss, William Root 1, 163 

Boles, Jonathan 194, 195 

Bolles, Charles E. 307, 335 

Elder 258 

Prince 152 

Solomon E. 329 

William E. 268 

Bonnev, Charles 66 

George 66, 147, 149, 180 

Boodry, Benjamin L. 334 

Dennis 263 

Dennis S. 322 

Bools, Jonathan 190 

Bools or Bowles, Lydia 189, 217 

Mary 189, 217 

Bools, Samuel 206 

Borden, Rev. Thomas 273 

Boston 19, 20 

Bourne, Edmund L. 307 

George W. 307 

William L. 322 

Bowles, Deacon 220 

Isaac 217, 238 

Joa 260 

Samuel 263 

Bowlin, John 329 

Bowline 281 

Bowman, Ebenezer H. 308 

Macy 330 

Boyd, William T. 272 

Bradford, Captain 118 

Doctor 207 

John 38, 56 

Joseph 36, 56 

Lydia 208 

William 38 

Gov. William 6 

Braley, Ezekiel 276 

Henry King 68 

Brereton 5 

Brett, Elder Pliny 96 

Brewster, Mr. 198 

Brickett, Rev. H. L. 72, 85, 88 

Briggs, Abigail 260 

Betsey 260 

C. . . . 113 



PAGES 

Briggs, Caleb 113, 148 

Earl C. 167 

Ebenezer 78 

Elder 265 

Eliza 45 

Isaac 82 
John 75, 107, 113, 114 

Nathan 263 
Samuel 37, 45, 53, 130 

Seth 129 

Rev. Mr. 241 

Silas 113 

Brower, George V. 29 

Browne, Causten 270 

Rev. Percy 269 

Bryant, Charles 209, 323, 334 

Rev. William 235, 265 

Buck, Charles F. 268 

Charles H. 308 

Buckingham, Mr. 231 

Buell, Edward 240, 248 

Bumpus, Elizabet 74 

Isaac 108 

Jacob, 56, 73, 74 

Sarah 74 

Burbank, Charles M. 308 

Ezra 272 

James S. 334 

Burg, Ichabod 109 

Burge, Burges or Burgess, 

John 113 

Joseph 37, 38, 41, 56 

Burgess, Seth 271 

Tristam 55 

Burnham, Rev. Edwin 266 

Rev. Hezekiah 266 

Butts, Joseph A. 308 



Cadmeus or Caduceus 296 

Cannon, Alexander 248 

Arvin 240, 256, 286, 321, 322 

Caleb L. 240 

Calvin C. 188, 222 

David H. 240, 256, 283 

334, 335 

Ebenezer 222, 240, 283, 284, 

286 

Eliakim 222 



412 



Index 



PAGES 

Cannon, Elizabeth 261 

Fred J. 308 

Hallet M. 188, 240, 321 

James 240, 256, 286, 322 

John C. 272 

Medad 260 

Nathan 149, 217, 240 

Thomas J. 308 

Watson 286 

Carr, John P. 308 

Carpenter, Elder Henrv F. 266 

Wright 308 

Caswell, Elbridge G. 256, 308, 

318 

Nancy M. 334 

Chaddock, Rev. Calvin 80, 82, 

147, 148 

Chandler, Charles 260 

Rebecca 260 

Chauncey, Charles 6 

Church, Benjamin 11, 13, 14, 15, 

16, 18, 60 

Charles 130 

John 113 

Jonathan 122 

Joseph W. 171, 183, 186 

Lemuel 60, 61 

Richard 60 

in the Second Precinct, 

The 187-278 

Clap or Clapp, Earl 60, 87, 130, 

134 

Clap, Increase 60, 113 

Clapp, Bethiah 60 

Clapp, John 107, 122 

Clara Bell 287 

Clark, Allis 189 

Colonel 182, 186 

Deacon 207 

Elijah 219 

Elijah W. 308 

Ezekiel 217 

Freeman 308 

or Clarke, James 36, 37, 88 

James H. 149, 180 

James M. 305, 306 

John 109, 204 

John, 2d 270, 271 

John H. 27, 149, 152, 181, 

182 

Mary K. 319 



PAGES 

Clark, Mehitable 74 

Mr. 223 

Nathan S. 149 

Nathaniel 240, 321 

or Clarke, Thomas 36, 37, 

38, 189, 191 

or Clarke, William 36, 37, 223, 

271 

Clarke, Jo 131 

Cleveland, Rev. John P. 251,252 

Clifton, Savery 54, 276 

Coale, George O. G. 270 

Cobb, Anna 222 

Rev. Asahel 222, 250 

George A. 223 

John 222 

Rev. Leander 87, 91, 238 

Rev. Oliver 64, 86, 87, 88, 

89, 90, 172, 226, 241 

Wendell 223 

William H. 68 

Colburn, Mr. 236 

Cole, Hugh 11, 49 

John 261 

Joseph L. 333, 334 

Rebecca C. 261 

Coleman, Ebenezer 271 

James 240, 263 

Conant, Rev. Mr. 202 

Connett, William 12, 13, 41 

Cooke, John 15 

Coomes, Anthony 41, 73, 74 

Cooper, Doctor 84 

Corydon, Mr. 235 

Cottle, Jabez 113 

Cotton, John 38, 56 

Covert, Eugene S. 308 

Cowell, William G. 308 

Cowen, Daniel H. 131 

Cowing, John 113 

Seth 271 

Crandall, George 287 

Crandon, Philip 95, 113, 146, 149, 

167, 168, 169, 173 

Crehore, Rev. Joseph 273 

Crosby, E. Frank 308 

Mr. 246 

Nathan 227, 240, 321, 322 

Nathaniel A. 217, 238, 240, 

321, 322 

Prentice 230 



Index 



413 





PAGES 




PAGES 


Crosby, Prentis 


240 


Dexter, Cynthia 


321, 322 


Sarah H. 


325 


David 


107, 210 


Waterman 


230, 240 


Edward 


30 


William K. 


308 


Elisha 


263, 268 


Cross, Franklin 251, 


305, 332, 333 


Elisha L. 


308 


Wealthy A. 


248 


Ephraim 


203, 204 


Cunningham, Rev. Henry 269 


Ephraim A. 


331, 333 


Curby, John 


217 


Francis E. 


308 


Curtis, James 


263 


George 


308 


Cushing, Edward L. 


308 


George H. 255, 308, 325, 334 


Elnathan H. 


240 


Gideon 


217 


Joshua 


171, 239 


Hannah 


189 


Jn. 


131 


Harriet W. 


255 


Lydia 


217 


Rev. Henry M 


14, 53, 148 


Cushman, Ezekiel 


122, 261 


Horace 


308 


George 


319 


Jabez 


131, 190 


Nathaniel 


206 


James F. 


160 


Thomas 


6 


James W. 


273, 308 






Joanna 


260 






John 52, 109, 


113, 114, 240, 


D 






322 






Jonathan 


233 


Daggett, Albert 


271 


Josiah 


190 


Dan ford, George 


190 


Lemuel LeB. 


188, 325, 334, 


Davenport, Rev. J. . 


E. 273 




335 


Davis, Lemuel LeB. 


308 


Leonard 


321 


Mary E. 


319 


Luke 


260, 262, 263 


Nicholas 55 


, 92, 113, 276 


Lydia 


259 


Richard 


276 


Mary 


52, 260 


Samuel 


37 


Mary F. 


255, 334 


Thomas R. 


308 


Noah 


122 


Timothy 


55, 113 


Reuben 


240 


Defiance, 
Delano, Benjamin 


281 


Robert L. 


53 


64, 110 


Samuel 


189 


Harper 
James 


113 


Sarah 


74 


173 


Seth 53, 112, 


, 113, 121, 144 


Stephen 
Denham, Almira E. 


113 


Susannah P. 


256 


318 


Thomas 52, 73, 74, 114, 217, 


George 
Nathan B. 


221 
200, 209 


Thomas D. 


270, 271 
308, 333 


Nathaniel 


268 


Walter S. 


275 


Dennis, John S. 


304, 308 


William 


38, 49, 52 


De Rasieres, Isaac 
Dexter, Alden 


6 
217, 270, 271 


William C. 304, 308 
Division of the Town, The_ 


Allen 


188. 238, 240 




ltjd-l8t> 


Benjamin 52, 53, 75, 74, 113, 
J 114, 188 


Dix, General 
Dornie, Captain 


68 
160 


Benjamin, 2d 

Caleb 

Charles 


308 


Doty, Barnabas 


130 


107, 160 


John 


115 


272 


Dotey, Joseph 
Mary 


37, 38, 56, 113 
56 


Constant 53, 18£ 


1,192,196,217 



414 



Index 







PAGES 




PAGES 


Dotey, Col. Thomas 




118 


Faunce, Elder Thomas 


267 


"Dotti, Madame" 




56 


Elder William 264, 


265, 266, 


Drown, Rev. Edward 


269 




267 


Dryad 




296 


William T. 258, 


264, 266, 


Dunham, Andrew 




263 




339 


Asa 




260 


Fearing, Andrew 


54 


Elizabeth 




260 


Israel 


65 


General 




152 


Field, Horace F. 


333 


Joseph 




37, 56 


Finney, Doctor 


249 


Mary 




260 


Fitch, Doctor 
Forbes, James D. 


270 

275 


E 






Foster, Benjamin 37, < 
Chillingsworth 


14, 56, 58 
56 


Earliest Times 




5-20 


James 56, 112, 


113, 153 


Early Church and 


the 


Pre- 


Lothrop 


272 


cincts, The 




72-96 


Fortune 


6 


Eaton, Solomon K. 


90, 


149, 187, 


Fox, George 


329 


188,240,248,251, 


294, 308, 


Frasher, Susannah 


260 






322, 327 


Freeman, Elisha 


113, 120 


Eddy, John 




334 


John 


113, 114 


Edwards, Jos. 




260 


Olivia H. 


319 


Eighteenth Century, 


The 


97-125 


Seth 225,227,238, 


239, 240, 


Kills, Rev. John 




274 




294, 321 


Eld ridge Elnathan 




212 


Fuller, Rev. Augustus H. 


253, 325 


Rev. Mr. 




266 


Ebenezer 


260 


Samuel 




219 






Ellis, Albert 




309 






Daniel S. 




309 


G 




Doctor 




181 






Elizabeth 




37, 53 


Gage, Thomas E. 


152 


Experience 




259 


Gallon, James 


68, 308 


Jarvis 


305, 


333, 334 


Gelatte, Holder 


260 


Jesse 




259 


General Features 


21-35 


John 




53 


Gerry, Gov. Elbridge 


209 


Malachi, 149, 


259, 


262, 263 


Gibes, Sulvenas 


203 


Mollie 




260 


Gideon Barstow 


295 


Thomas 149, 


180, 


184, 186, 


Gifford, John L. 


68, 308 






259 


Joseph 


113 


Timothy 




260 


Peleg 


240 


Unice 




259 


Robinson 


308 


Walton N. 112 


,173 


, 180, 181 


Washington 


283 


William 




262, 271 


William C. 


309 


Emerson, George B. 




28 


Goff, Elder 


256 


Emmons, Doctor 




82 


Goodspeed, Rev. Frank I.. 253 


Everett, Gov. Edward 


232 


Jabez 271, 


, 275, 321 


Rev. Noble 




1,225 


Melintha 
Oliver J. 
Goodwin, Rev. Ezra S. 


275 
309 
156 


F 






Gorham, Albert H. 
Gosnold, Bartholomew 


309 
5 


Falkner, Rev. William H. 269 


Gould, Rev. William 


226, 238 



Index 



415 







PAGES 




PAGES 


Gray, Captain 




306 


Hammond, Hiram 


268 


Graham, William H. 




309 


Israel 51, 191, 192, 


194, 204, 


Green, Polly 




260 




209, 212 


Griffeth, William 




110 


Jabez 188, 189, 


, 191, 196 


Griffith, Samuel 




114 


James 


263 


William 




113 


James A. 


309 


Gurney, Rev. David 




81 


James F. 

Jesse 

Joa 


333 

240, 245 

260 


H 






John 1, 12, 38, 49, 56, 74, 75, 








113, 114, 188, 


189, 190, 


Hall, Abner 




240 


191, 


, 193, 206 


Daniel 




167 


John, Jr. 


192 


Deborah 




261 


John W. 309, 


, 318, 334 


Elizabeth 




261 


John Wilkes 


68, 271 


Larnet, 




271 


Joseph 


260 


Martin 




240, 322 


Josephus 


121 


Hamblen, David 




64 


Josiah 


191 


Hamblin, Helen M. 




223 


Larnet H. 


309 


Hamlin, Charles S. 


270 


, 338, 344 


Leonard 188, 221, 


240, 286, 


Mrs. Charles S. 




344 




294, 321 


Hammett, Joseph 




149 


Lothrop 


131 


Hammond, Allen D. 




333 


Mary 74, 189 


, 238, 319 


Amittai B. 113, 


149, 167, 


Mary, Jr. 


74 


168, 173, 180, 


183, 188, 


Micah 


131 


217, 222, 238, ! 


Ul, 305, 


Nancy 


260 


314, 321, 333 




Nathan 114 


, 189, 192 


Anna 




86 


Nathaniel 51, 113, 


115, 129, 


Anthony 




131 


130, 131, 136, 


139, 141, 


Antipas 113, 


192, 


, 199, 207 


148, 188, 204, 


207, 217, 


Archelaus 




192, 295 




259, 263 


B. F. 




321 


Noah 38, 39, 51, 


187, 188, 


Barzillai 113, 


188. 


, 192, 206 


212, 218, 219, 


220, 251, 


Benjamin, Jr. 19, 50, 52, 113, 


256, 268 


, 318, 333 


114, 188, 189, 


190, 


, 191, 193, 


Polypus 


86 






199, 263 


Priscilla 


189 


B. Frank 




309 


Priscilla N. 


321 


Bezald S. 




271 


Roger W. 
Roland 


272 


Buretta W. 




319 


309, 335 


Calvin 




131 


Rowland 


51 


Charles B. 




306 


Samuel 11, 37, 39, 49, 56, 


Christopher 
Clara L. 




263 
334 


73, 74, 113 
Seney 260 


Ebenezer R. 




271 


Seth 


lai 


Edward 


51, 


, 129, 130 


Stephen 


113 


Elizabeth 




50 


Thomas C. 


240 


Enoch 51, 113, 


188, 


203, 204, 


Thomas P. 


305, 333 




207. 


, 210, 218 


Thomas West 


295, 335 


George F. 
Gideon 51, 130. 


309 
219, 220, 


William 
Hancock, John 


50 
137, 212 






240, 242 


Handy, Levi 


172 



416 



Index 



PAGES 

Harlow, Abner 179, 181, 183, 

188, 239, 240, 321, 322, 333 

Nathaniel 222 

William 305 

Harrington, Rev. Eli 92 

Harris, William 33 

William, Jr. 309 

Harrison, Abraham 260 

Haskell, Amelia 260 

Betsey 260 

Doctor 169 

Elisha 130 

Elnathan 130 

Eugenia 58 

Jesse 122, 148, 150 

John 56, 57 

Joseph 57, 114, 116 

Lot 144 

Lucy 260 

Major 176 

Mark 39, 57, 73, 112, 116 

Mark, Jr. 57 

Mary 73, 74 

Nathaniel 168 

Polly 260 

Rocksa 260 

Roger 57, 75, 113 

Seth 122, 169 

William C. 176 

Zebulon 82 

Hatch, Benjamin 167, 219 

Hathaway, David 152, 169, 171, 

172, 173, 174, 176 

Gilbert 180, 181 

Judah 46, 306 

Mr. 236 

Sarah E. C. 256 

Thomas 276 

Hawes, Rev. Joel 247 

Hayden, Benjamin F. 309 

Charles H. 309 

Higgins, Thankful 260 

Hiller, Alpheus B. 309 

Barnabas 271 

David 276 

Ebenezer R. 309 

Edward B. 334 

Elwood B. 334 

Isaac 319, 333 

Timothy 88, 113, 151 

Hinckley, Governor 59 



PAGES 

Hinckley, Thomas 17, 37, 38, 56 

Hix, Elder Daniel 256, 257, 258, 

259, 261, 262, 266 

Elder John 217, 219, 256 

Holbrook, Rev. W. A. 269 

Holmes, Dr. Abiel 230 

Mrs. Abiel 230 

Abigail 74 

Abraham 1, 24, 25, 43, 46, 56, 

58, 73, 74, 87, 93, 94, 95, 

100, 106, 107, 110, 111, 

112, 113, 118, 123, 128, 

129, 139, 140, 141, 146, 

148, 149, 151, 167, 168, 

169, 171, 299 

Anna 74 

Charles J. 113, 147, 148, 

149, 173, 174, 177, 178 

Charles J., Jr. 149 

Eben 113, 114, 149 

Ebenezer 168, 171, 172, 300 

Experience 58, 74, 101 

Heman G. 309, 334 

Isaac 58, 73, 74, 75, 104, 

105, 114 

John H. 184, 186 

Jonathan H. 287, 322, 333, 

334 335 

Josiah 58, 263, 277,' 287 

Josiah, Jr. 277, 287, 294, 305, 

322, 333, 334 

Lemuel LeBaron 68, 184, 188, 

287, 334, 335 

Oliver Wendell 338 

Oliver Wendell, Jr. 338 

Reuben F. 287, 333, 334 

Rev. S. 226, 232 

Thomas 263 

William F. 335 

Hooker, Thomas 253 

Hope, Nathan 118 

Hopkins, President 232 

House or Hows, Abel 221, 222 

Hovey, Domenicus 200, 219 

Ez. 131 

Rev. Ivory 64, 194, 195, 199, 

200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 

205, 206, 207 

Mrs. 233 

Mrs. Olive 200 

Howard, Abner 259 



Index 



417 



Howard, Hulda 




PAGES 

259 


Jordan, Samuel R. 




] 


PAGES 

310 


Susanna 
Howes, Clarence L. 






261 
335 


Joy, Lidah 






• 74 


Deborah F. 






321 










Freeman B. 






160 


K 








Oakes R. 






272 










Woodbridge R. 


68, 273 


,310, 


Keen, Abel 






118 




320. 


, 334 


, 335 


Keene, Ebenezer, Jr. 




261 


Howland, Rowland 


240 


, 24S 


I, 322 


Freeman C. 






334 


Weston 188, 


240 


,330 


i, 334 


Keith, Albert 






310 


Hubbard, Mrs. Elizabeth 


214 


Charles F. 






310 


William L. 




255 


, 331 


Marshall 






305 


Hudson, Joseph 




272 


, 322 


Kellner, Rev. Mr. 






269 


Huggins, Leon M. 






284 


Kelton, Elder George N, 




257 


Humphrey, Mrs. 






255 


King, Caleb 






188 


Rev. Robert 






254 


Caleb, Jr. 






294 


Hunter, Agnes 






249 


Charles A. 






270 


Hutchinson, Governor 




133 


George, 113, 


149, 


169, 


172, 


Huttleston, Capt. Henry 




230 








180 










James W. 






310 










Jonathan 






122 


I 








Theophilus 68. 


,112, 


113 


,149, 










179, 


180, 


183 


;, 184 


Indian Peter 






19 


Kinney, Abigail 






260 


Infant Baptisms and 


Mar 




Jireh, Jr. 






310 


riages 




370-405 


John 






263 


Isaake 






16 


Jonathan 
Thomas 
William H. 




221 


, 263 
260 
310 


J 








Konkeal, Christian 






271 


Jenks, Rev. George 


F. 




274 










Jenne, Nathan 






113 


L 








Jenney, Charles Elmer 




347 










Job 






271 


Landers, Bethuel 






321 


John 






191 


Larselle, Rev. Nathaniel 


252 


,253 


Joseph, Jr. 






272 


Laurel 






295 


Joseph R. 






331 


Lawrence, Bishop 






269 


Lester W. 




333, 


335 


Elder 






258 


Jenny, Samuel 
Sarah 






219 


Joshua 






113 






260 


Lawson, Elias 






310 


Johnson, Charles H. 






334 


Leach Mary 






240 


Thomas W. 






310 


Leach, Milton H. 






188 


William N. 






334 


Leavit, Joseph 






259 


Jones, Ebenezer 






322 


Leavitt, Robert E. 






310 


Mrs. Ebenezer 






275 


LeBaron, A. S. 






334 


Rev. Frank S. 






268 


Abby P. 






319 


James, T. 




274, 


339 


Elizabeth 






223 


LotN. 


169, 


240, 


241 


Francis 






208 


Jordan, Olive 






195 


Frederick L. 






310 


Samuel 






195 


James, 


322, 


328, 


329 



418 



Index 



PAGES 

LeBaron, John 180 

John A. 149, 210, 220, 221, 

226, 239, 240, 310, 321 

Dr. Lazarus 208, 223, 238, 

321 

Rev. Lemuel 12, 21, 25, 33, 64, 

69, 119, 131, 143, 207, 208, 

209, 211, 212, 213, 214, 

215, 216, 217, 220, 222, 

224, 225, 226, 227, 229, 

230, 233, 238, 256, 328 

Lemuel 180, 184, 185, 200, 

203, 227, 240, 256, 322, 330 

Mrs. 223 

William 151, 188, 223 

William H. 310 

Leonard, Charles 66 

Mary Hall, 3 

Nahum 184 

Nahum, Jr. 112, 310, 335 

Lewis, David 186 

Lincoln, General 141 

John 219 

Sherman 122, 210 

List of members, 1772 368, 369 

List of Maximum Prices 

Rochester, 1777 363-366 
Little, Isaac 44 

Livingstone, Rev. Charles 249, 

250 

David 249, 250 

Mrs. 250 

Neil 249 

Lobre, Franklin A. 304, 310 

Look, Gilbert A. 310 

Olivia R. 319 

Samuel 195 

Lothrop, Barnabas 10, 36, 37, 

38, 56 

John 10, 56 

Rev. John 7, 50 

Joseph 12, 36, 37, 38 

Samuel 59 

Lout, Jeremiah 113 

Lovel, Joseph 121 

Luce, Francis 131 

James 263 

Joseph S. 38, 180 

Rowland 151 

Shubael K. 310 

Stephen C. 178, 180 



Luce, Thomas 



PAGES 

160, 284 



M 



Machacom 9 

Macomber, Elder 268 

Joshua L. 277, 334 

Macy, Nathaniel 282 

Magges, Ebenezer 203, 206 

Mahoney, Dennis 266 

Maltby, Rev. Erastus 241 

Mann, Doctor 153 

Horace 146, 232 

Masshell, Josiah 110 

Maxwell, Rev. Benjamin F. 252 
Marchant, Miss 264 

Maritime and Other Indus- 
tries 279-301 
Marshall, Allen 122 
Martin, Rev. David L. 268 
Jesse 270, 271 
John 112 
Rev. T. D. 269 
Mason, Rev. Charles 269 
Massasoit 6 
Mather, Rev. William L. 248 
Mattapoisett in the Civil War 

302-312 
Mattapoisett of the Present 

336-347 
Mattapoisett the Town, 313-335 
Maximum Prices, 1777, List 

of 363-366 

Mayflower 6, 160, 246 

May hew, Francis LeBaron 234, 

256 

Rev. Joseph 206, 207 

Matthew 182, 240, 321, 322 

Means, Mrs. Sophia 287 

Meed, Meede, or Mead, Zac- 

cheus 203, 210 

Meigs, Alice 256 

Meigs, Joseph 233, 298, 327 

Joseph 112, 149, 151, 179, 

220, 221, 265, 270, 272 
Joseph L. 334 

Loring 149, 152, 183, 186, 
286, 294, 321, 322 
Members, Second Church, 

List of 368, 369 



Index 



419 





PAGES 




PAGES 


Mendall, Ellis 


260 


Norton, Jabez 


210 


Moses 


151 


Nott, Rev. Samuel 


226 


Seth 


265 


Noyes, William 


114 


Mendell, Caleb 


261 


Numpus 


16, 17 


Ellis 


275 


Nye, Charles 


128 


Maria 


261 


Charles H. 


275, 310 


Nathan S. 


255, 333 


George B. 63, 


113, 118 


Paul 


116 


Mavro C. 


311 


Samuel 


272 


Stephen 


271 


Seth 


270, 271 






Meribah 


19, 20 






Merithew, William 


240 


O 




Merrihew, Stephen 


268 


Ocean Rover 


305, 306 


Merrithew, Alexander C. 


310 


O'Connor, Daniel 


311 


Merry, Mr. 


23, 70 


"Old Tony" 


19 


Miggs . . . 
Miller, Seth, Jr. 


261 


Oliver, Rev. Dr. Andrew 


269 


178 


Edward 


270 


Mireck, Phebe 


259 


Oscar 


160 


Mitchell, Richard 


241 






Samuel 


297 






Moore, Jonathan 


85 


P 




Rev. Jonathan 64 


i, 84, 85, 






86, 87, 


129, 153 


Paddock, Bishop Benjamin 


Professor 


255 


H. 


269 


Susanna 


85 


Paine, Jane 


62 


William 


210, 220 


Francis M. 


311 


Morse, Edward A. 


310 


Nancy 


261 


Frederick L. 


310 


Robert Treat 


137 


George F. 


310 


Vira 


260 


H. W., Rev. 


273 


Palmer, Mr. 


111 


Theodore S. 


310 


Rev. Samuel 


205 


Morton, George 


37, 56 


Papamo 


9 


Marcus 


81 


Parker, Aaron 


131 


Nathaniel 


81 


Rev. Mr. 


194, 207 


Polly 


81 


Parlor, Mary 


259 


ML Vernon 


160 


Parlow, Jesse 


61 


Munro, Martha H. 


283 


Keziah 


61 


P. G. 


330 


Paumpmuitt 


12 


Munroe, Miss 


339 


Parsons, Theophilus 


270 


Myers, John 


109 


Thomas 


269, 270 




Rev. William L. 


248, 250, 








251 


N 




Paybody, William ' 


37, 38, 56 






Pearce, Peleg 


321 


Nelson, Thomas 241, 


261, 302, 


Peardon, Rev. James W 


275 




305, 334 


Pease, Abner 283, 


, 285, 287 


William B. 325, 


330, 334 


Theophilus 


156 


Niles, Rev. Mr. 


205 


Theophilus, Jr. 


218 


NimTod 


151 


Peck, George G. 
Peckham, Capt. 
William F. 


311 


Norton . . . 


131 


176 


Aaron 112, 


, 113, 188 


311 



420 



Index 



PAGES 

Penn, William 50 

Sir William 50 

Perchard, Clement H. 311 

Perkins, Benjamin 260 

Rev. H. W. 269 

Judah 260 

Luke 80 

Noah C. 174 

Perry, John 38 

Ruth 74 

Thomas 74 

Petenunuitt 17 

Phelan, John E. 311 

Phelps, Rev. Charles H. 253, 254 

William 253 

Philip 11, 16, 17 

Phipps, Sir William 42 

Pierce, George 184, 311 

Joshua 113 

Peleg 240 

Pitcher, Betsey 66 

John 177 

Plaisted, Rev. lchabod 82 

Planter 281 

Pope, Benjamin F. 188 

Seth 37 

Potter, Rev. William F. 274 

Powel, Ralph 37, 56 

Pratt, Captain 118 

David 286 

Price, Asa 131 

Prince, Samuel 42, 43, 56, 58, 59, 

73, 108, 110, 114 

Joseph 59, 108, 114 

Rev. Thomas 59 

Thomas 6 

Purrington, Francis M. 311 

George 270, 271 

George, Jr. 274, 307, 322, 

324, 327, 334, 342 

Henry J. 311 

Isaiah 266 

James 263, 270, 271 

John A. 311 

Joseph 96, 173 

Samuel 263 



Quincy, President Josiah 231 



K PAGE3 

Randall, Andrew 26V 

Charles N. 311 

Clement 263 

Daniel 259 

Elijah W. 304, 311 

Fayette E. 311 

George W. 311 

Jeremiah 61, 176 

Jethro 259 

John 113, 114 

John H. 263, 272 

Lewis 263 

Keziah 61, 261 

Lvdia 261 

Richard 261 

Robert C. 148, 160 

Robert C, Jr. 160 

Stephen 256 

Thomas 61, 114, 160, 319 
Randol, Thomas 190 

Randolph, David 259 

Ransom, James B. 268, 328 

N. C. 330 

Sidney 311 

Theodore S. 311 

Ratcliffe, Rev. Charles A. 254 
Rate Bill of the Inhabitants 

of Rochester, 1776 360-363 
Raymond, William 112, 114 

Reed, Hosea 272 

Revolutionary War, The 126-142 
Rhodes, Rev. J. Frank 275 

Richmond, Israel 221 

William L. 311 

Rider, Widow 261 

Robbins, Rev. Ammi Ruha- 

mah 207, 223 

Rev. Chandler 202, 207, 225 

Rev. Francis 244 

Rev. Thomas, D.D. 1, 147, 

154, 159, 160, 162, 170, 

171, 172, 176, 178, 190, 

197, 198, 214, 215, 222, 

223, 224, 226, 227, 228, 

229, 230, 232, 234, 235, 

236, 237, 238, 239, 242, 

243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 

265, 266, 272 

Robenson, Anna 259 

Robinson, Benjamin F. 311 



Index 



421 



PAGES 

Robinson, Jedediah 259 

Rochester 282 

Soldiers and Sailors in 

Early Wars 349-359 

Rogers, Abisha 222 

David 131 

Henry H. 320, 342 

Judith C. 321 

Libni 284 

Moors or Moores, 

131, 188, 210 

William B. 240, 256, 321, 325 

Ross, John E. 271 

Rounseville, Alden 183, 184 

Alden, Jr. 160 

Job P. 311 

Rounsville, William H. 311 

Rugg, Charles P. 148 

Ruggles, Elisha 148, 270 

James 112, 149, 168, 169, 

173, 176, 184, 185, 186 

Micah H. 112 

Nathaniel 113, 114 

Samuel 113, 115 

Rev. Timothy 64, 73, 74, 75, 

79, 83, 85, 115, 116, 189 

Timothy, Jr. 76, 108, 110, 

114, 116, 117, 118 

Russell, Lewis 271 

Ryder, John S. 2, 145 



Savery, Rufus 149 

Schoppe, Rev. William G. 

274 275 
Seabrease, Rev. A. W. ' 269 

Seabury, Rev. P. G. 226 

Sears, Isaiah 238, 321 

Nathaniel 133 

William 149, 180 

Seavey, Mrs. 339 

Settlers and the Settlements, 

The 48-71 

Shattuck, George O. 338 

Shaw, Bruce F. 227, 268, 333 

Mrs. Bruce F. 269 

Calvin 221 

Elizabeth E. 334 

George 263 



PAGES 

Shaw, John A. 268 

John C. 335 

J. E. Norton 335 

William 263 

Shearman, Benjamin W. 334 

Daniel 260 

Deborah 260 

Edward 271 

Elijah 212, 217, 219 

Noah 334 

Samuel 114 

Thankful 260 

Thomas 272 

Zephaniah 262 

William 260 

Sherman, Elihu 331 

Noah 311 

Thomas 260-272 

Shiverick, Rev. Samuel 43, 72 

Shurtleff, Henry A. 312, 332, 334, 

335 

Herbert, 334, 335 

Silva, Edgar 284 

Simpson, Oscar 312 

Skiff, Abigail 260 

Slatery, Rev. Charles Lewis 269 

Smellie, James 160 

Smith, Rev. Benton 274 

Charles 323, 330 

Rev. Edward G. 252 

Isaac 149 

James A. 312 

John 312 

Joseph E. 268, 305, 332, 333 

Nathan 325, 332 

Royal 180 

William 122 

Snow, Allen W. 312 

Alvah E. 335 

Charles F. 312 

Dennis 271 

Dolly 260 

Edward F. 304, 312 

Elisha 312 

Elliot R. 256 

Elder Frederick 267 

George D. 304, 312 

Henry L. 312 

Isaac 133, 134 

Ivory, 2d 272 

James, 2d 271 



422 



Index 





PAGES 


Snow, Joseph 


263, 271 


Levi 


240 


Linus 


171, 180 


Martin 


172 


Nicholas 


113 


Prince A. 


330 


Prince, Jr. 


27 


Russell E. 


268 


Samuel 


263 


Silas W. 


210, 312 


Stephen 


240 


Thomas 


220, 221 


William E. 


312 


Wyatt 240, 270, 271 


"Southard, Dr." 


233 


Southw'd, Andrew 


131 


Southworth, Abigail 


217 



Andrew 171, 222, 233, 239, 

240, 321 

Gideon 187, 188, 191, 192, 

204, 222 

Newton 240, 270, 271 

Priscilla A. 321 

Wilber 188, 203, 206, 219, 

262, 263, 270, 271 



Sparrow, Alice 

Frank M. 

Priscilla 

William E. 

William E, 
Spooner, Alis 

Ebenezer 

Isaac 

Noah 

Thomas 
Spoor, Orange 

Mrs. Orange 
Sprague, Nathaniel 



321 

335 

319 

66, 255, 334, 335 

Jr. 325, 334 

74 

74 

74 

328 

259 

321 

321 

58, 112, 113, 

148 

Noah 19, 58, 79, 112, 113, 114 

Samuel 58, 112, 113, 114, 

127, 133 

Stackpole, J. Lewis, Jr. 



Standish, Capt. Miles 
Stephens, Waty 
Stetson, Everett C. 
Stevens, Nie 

Timothy 

Weighty 
Steward, James 



155, 270, 
330, 338 
7, 246 
259 
333 
131 
131 
262 
114 



PAGES 

Stiles, Henry 246 

Stocking, Rev. C. H. W. 269 

Stockman, Elder E. A. 268 

Stoddard, Elizabeth Barstow 68, 

228, 229, 230, 339 

Richard Henry 68, 228, 229, 

230 

Stone, Richard 312 

Studson, Mary 260 

Sturtevant, John Bourne 1 

Charles 57, 113, 153 

Josiah D. 242 

Noah C. 188, 240, 242, 334 

Samuel 240, 294, 322 

Samuel, Jr. 149, 188, 322, 

334 

Sullings, Rev. Hervey 242, 265 

Summers, John 113 

Suscacow, Peter 12 

Sussex, Duke of 231 

Sweat, William W. 312, 335 



Taber, Barton 322 

Mrs. Elizabeth 66, 182 

Humphrey 268 

Joseph R. 256, 271, 294 

William Henry 304 

William Loring 275, 294 

Tardin, Thamsen 189 

Taylor, Henry 187, 188, 319, 334 

Rev. Henry B. 274 

Mr. 236 

Rev. Mr. 266 

Theodore K. 172, 272 

William 248, 254 

Temple, Rev. Edward F. 274 

Tenney, Rev. Charles R. 273 

Thacher, Rev. Isaiah 247, 248, 

250 
Thatcher, Rev. Peter 119, 207, 

243 
Thompson, Dr. Ezra 160 

Isaac 146 

Zebulon H. 168 

Thorpe, William 150 

Tiffany, Dexter 270 

Tilden, Irving Niles 256, 325 

Tinkham, Charles 259 



Index 



423 



PAGES 

Tinkham, Charles H. 304, 312 

Ephraim 259 

Isaac D. 330 

James H. 330 

Unice 259 

Tobev, Deacon 220 

Thomas 188, 217, 263 

Toby, Elisha 131 

William 131 

Tomson, John 10, 11 

Totosin 12, 17, 32 

Trident 281 

Tripp, Bathshebah 259 

Charles A. 312 

Ebenezer 305, 312 

Elder Howard 266 

Jesse 259 

Job 312 

Mariah 259 

Stephen 276 

Trowbridge, Rev. J. P. 65, 80 

Tryon, Rev. James L. 269 

Tuck, Rev. John 205 

Tucker, Edward T. 275 

Tupper, Rev. Elisha 192, 193, 

199 

Nathan 192, 196, 198 

Turner, Rev. Mr. 202 

Thomas 114 

Tuspaquin 10 

Tuthill, Rev. C. Julian 255 



U 

Upham, Rev. C. 
Utley, Rev. Samuel 
Rev. William 



Vaughn, Jonathan 
Veazie, Samuel, Mr. 
Vose, Rev. Henry C. 



W 

Wadhams, Mrs. P. A. 
Wanderer 



252 

225 
82 



151 
194 
273 



65 

287 



Warren, Henry 


PAGES 

270 


James 


126 


Joseph 


37 


Samuel D. 


325 


Washburn, Ezra E. 


240 


John 


271 


John M. 


312 


Lucy B. 


321 


Watachpoo 


7 


Waterman, Eleazer 


222 


Jabez 


272 


Sylvanus D. 


312 


Weaver, W T illiam 


334 


Webster, Daniel 


149 



Weeks, Ansel 173, 176, 251, 270 

Warren 270 

Weetamoe 17 

Weld, A. H. 2 

West, Drucilla 207 

Rev. Thomas 64, 79, 81, 134, 

202, 207 

Timothy 217, 219 

W T eston, Anna 260 

Lewis S. 312 

Westgate, Alonzo W. 334 

Lydia 259 

Wheeler, Rev. Mr. 250 

Whitcomb, James 113 

White, Colonel 130, 139 

Ebenezer 55, 127, 148 

John 55, 113 

Melatiah 113 

Mr. 246 

Samuel 37, 39, 55, 56, 74, 110 

Whitin or Whiting, Elder 262 

Whitridge, Abigail 260 

Joseph 118, 260 

Mary 74 

Peleg, 112, 113 

Whittemore, Charles J. 270 

Wicks, Ansel 271 

Warren 271 

Wigglesworth, Rev. Michael 205 

Wilbur, Abigail 261 

John E. 312 

Prudence 260 

Wilcox, Elizabeth 261 

George W. 312 

William S. 305, 312 

Williams, Mr. Ill 

Rev. Mr. 202 



Index 







PAGES 




PAGES 


Williams, Thomas 


131 


Winslow, Gov. Josiah 


36 


Willis, Elijah 


112, 


113, 148, 168, 


Kenelm 


36, 37, 54 


172, 173, ] 


, 263, 265, 271 


Mercy 


74 






294 


Micah 


260 


Nathan 




112, 113, 148 


Samuel 


74, 148 


Willkcy, Edward H. 


240 


Thomas 


54, 192 


Wing, Butler 




113 


Winston, Elizabeth R. 


255 


David 


112, 


113, 115, 127 


Winthrop, Gov. John 


13 


Elisha 




113 


Wood, Abner 


80 


Jo 




131 


Elder Israel 


265 


John 


53, 


Mary W. 


334 


John W. 




168 


Zenas 


80 


Samuel 




112, 113, 114 


Worth, Henry B. 


122 


Stephen 




113, 276 


Wright, Henry M. 


312 


William 




276 






Wyett 




131 






Winslow, Edw 


ard 


6, 75, 106, 
107, 113 


Y 




Gov. Edward 


54 


Young, Henry P. 


240 


(Seneral 




117 


Martha O. 


321 


Hannah 




260 


Sol 


131 


Job 




54, 56 


Solomon 


218 



